Men robbed to make it rain at NYC strip club, suspect tells cops

The robbers who targeted over a dozen delis and gas stations in an outer-boroughs crime spree told arresting officers they had plans to blow some of the stolen cash at a strip club.

Calvin Scantlebury, 39, Reginald Williams, 23, and Dewkwan Cooper, 22, were held on bail of up to $150,000 after they were busted for the string of robberies, the Queens district attorney’s office said Wednesday.

During their alleged crime spree, the ski-mask wearing crew ran into delis and gas stations, flashed guns and demanded cash, lottery tickets and packs of Newport cigarettes, according to police.

They were nabbed in the early hours of Sunday after back-to-back robberies in Queens.

Cooper told arresting police officers that the robberies that night hadn’t been “absolutely premeditated” and that the crew was planning on “scouting out some strip clubs.”

They hit up a deli on Astoria Blvd. near 92nd St. in Jackson Heights around 12:20 a.m., prosecutors allege.

“We didn’t really say anything, we had no intention of hurting anybody — we didn’t hurt anybody. It was just going to be cash,” Cooper said.

The men allegedly walked into the store, where Williams pointed a gun at an employee and barked, “Give me the money, I’ll kill you.”

The clerk complied, and one of the men removed about $4,000 in cash and rolling papers, prosecutors said.

With Williams behind the wheel, the crew took off in a blue Nissan Maxima and drove a little over 3 miles to a Gulf gas station on Skillman Ave. near 39th St. in Sunnyside.

“I do dumb s—t,” Williams told arresting officers. “All three of us walked into the gas station, they were trying to control it, so I robbed the sh—t.”

The men robbed the store at gunpoint and made off with $1,700 in cash and nearly $600 worth of Newport cigarettes.

“I was going to use it at the strip club,” Williams said of the cash. “Our intentions were to just take the money and go.”

About an hour and a half later, a patrolling officer spotted the car that was connected to the robbery pattern and pulled it over.

After he searched the vehicle and men, the officer found the cash, cigarettes, rolling papers and a loaded gun.

Williams said that the stickup scheme had started when he “happened to stumble upon” the gun.

“I came up with the idea that I have to get this money one way or another,” he said.

Starting Oct. 31, the men targeted 15 total spots — 11 in Queens and the rest in Brooklyn, cops said.