Ambulance Driver Convicted in Northeast Queens Robbery

A 44-year-old South Ozone Park man who worked as an ambulance driver has been convicted of robbing an Oakland Gardens nail salon in December 2009, the Queens district attorney said.

Kevin Cheeks, of 115-36 125th St. in South Ozone Park, was found guilty following a seven-day jury trial, Queens DA Richard Brown said. The defendant, who used his ambulance as a getaway vehicle during the robbery, will be sentenced before Queens Supreme Court Justice Gregory Lasak on March 23.

He could face a minimum of 20 years to life in prison, the DA said.

“The defendant will have a long time behind bars to ponder how a simple GPS vehicle tracking device and a few mouse clicks led to his arrest and conviction for robbery,” Brown said. “Such new technology gives new meaning to the old adage: ‘You can run, but you cannot hide.’”

On Dec. 12, 2009, Cheeks entered the Shinki Nail Salon, located at 212-08 Union Turnpike in Oakland Gardens, around 1 a.m. and told four customers and three employees in the store that he had a gun, the DA said.

He forced all seven people to go to the back of the store, telling one customer who was holding her cell phone that he would kill her if she attempted to make a call, Brown said.

The defendant then robbed the customers and employees as well as took all the money from the salon’s cash register, according to trial testimony.

As he was leaving the store, Cheeks realized that he could not find his cell phone and ran to the rear of the store to look for it. At that moment, one of the salon’s employees ran out the door and into a nearby diner, where she reported the robbery, Brown said.

The defendant walked past the front of the diner and the salon employee identified him, according to trial testimony. Several witnesses from the diner saw Cheeks get into an ambulance marked ‘Sigma Ambulette Number 16’ and speed away, the DA said.

At the time of the robbery, the defendant had been working two months with West Hempstead’s Sigma Transportation, Inc. He was not on duty at the time of the robbery, but used his ambulance as a getaway vehicle, Brown said.

Police reviewed the GPS tracking records for the ambulance and found that it had been in the vicinity of the salon at the time of the robbery, the DA said.

A search warrant was executed at his South Ozone Park home, where police found black clothing and a black jacket similar to the one described by the salon employees and customers who had been robbed, Brown said.

The robber was also seen wearing the jacket on video surveillance recorded in the salon, he said.

Cheeks was convicted of three counts of robbery, the DA said.