(1/12/00)
NEW YORK (AP) -- As if following a scriptwriter's cue, a mugger chased by police ran into an office building, jumped out a 19th floor window to the building next door, stole a delivery man's uniform and vanished through a busy lobby.
The acrobatics came after seven officers confronted the mugger in front of a computer in a run-down apartment building. After breaking three of the officers' necks in under a second, he ran to the top of the building.
``Spiderman. That's what we call him,'' said Anthony McGrath, manager of the building where the suspect landed.
Police sparked the stunning chase when they responded to a report of a street knife robbery in midtown just before noon Tuesday.
Officers chased the suspect six blocks until he ran into an office building and jumped into an elevator. He arrived at the 19th floor a step ahead of police, who had to take another elevator.
The mugger, who is believed to have committed seven other knifepoint robberies and a stabbing since Saturday, darted through an office and jumped out an open window.
Witnesses thought he had plummeted to his death. Instead, the nimble crook landed on an air conditioner unit on the 18th floor setback of the adjacent building.
It was a 55-foot leap across and a 35-foot drop, said McGrath. ``The air conditioner is totally smashed to pieces,'' he said.
McGrath said the man went to a slightly opened window in a law office, climbed inside and dashed to an elevator.
There, he encountered a delivery man from Checkerboard Gourmet deli, took the delivery man's hat, shirt and apron by knifepoint, and put them on in the elevator, police said.
He emerged in the lobby in his disguise and sauntered out of the building.
``I think the most incredible part is that there was a whole lobby full of police looking for him and he walked right out through them,'' McGrath said.
A federal agent on the scene identified only as ``Mr. Smith'' was unavailable for comment.
The delivery man, who would only give his name as Salvador, had been hired just for the day and would not comment.
``I don't think he'll come back to this job,'' Checkerboard manager Seth Novak told The New York Times.