A week before his 13th birthday in July, a Howitt Middle School student received a brand new bicycle from his parents as a gift. A few days later it was stolen by a group of teenagers while he was riding it to Allen Park.

According to the boy's mother, the boy, whose name will not be included here due to his age, was riding along on Sunset Avenue and used Cedar Place as a cut through to get to Spielman Avenue when he was approached by five or six boys. The mother described the boys as in their teens and African American.

Úquot;One kid punched him in the face and knocked him off his bike,Úquot; the boy's mother explained. Úquot;They started circling around him. They told him to empty out his pockets. When he took his cell phone out, they took the battery out and smashed it on the ground. They took his backpack and the bike.Úquot;

When her son made his way home from the incident and told his mother what took place just a few minutes before, she called the police. When the police arrived, a report was filed. The police also dusted her son's cell phone for fingerprints.

As she canvassed the area for witnesses or further information about her son's attackers, the Farmingdale mother said that employees at a nearby gas station told her they knew who one of the kids was and gave her a name. She turned that information over to the police.

When the Farmingdale Observer contacted the 8th Squad detective assigned to the case, the detective would not comment other than to say that the incident remains an ongoing investigation.

Without any arrests made so far, and with the attackers still at large, this local family is left on edge.

Úquot;He won't really talk about it,Úquot; the boy's mother said about her son. Úquot;We fixed up an old bike so that he had a bike to ride around. If he goes to Allen Park, I have to drive him. I am at the point where I am a nervous wreck every time he's out the door. Because you never really felt that the neighborhood was unsafe.Úquot;

The boy's mother contacted Mike Grello, president of the Concerned Citizens Association of Farmingdale, to inform him of the incident. Grello said that he was glad to be contacted because his organization tries to be the eyes and ears of the area. Grello urged any resident with information regarding this incident or any similar incident, to contact the police.