Another Testimonial For NYC & Company

You know things have turned around in New York when instead of the bad old days you have “You don’t expect this . . . especially not in front of Starbucks”

A brazen robber pistol-whipped a man yesterday on a Midtown street, wrestling a black duffel bag filled with $150,000 cash out of his hands as dozens of pedestrians looked on in horror.

Investigators are looking into the possibility that Seton Ijams, 50, was a victim of an inside-job robbery, and that someone may have tipped off the thief as to what time he would pick up the cash, a police official said.

Ijams, a vice president at Columbia Artists Management Inc., had just withdrawn the money from a Chase Bank branch on West 56th Street at Sixth Avenue shortly after 2 p.m., police said.

As he walked west along 56th Street, a young man followed Ijams and tried to grab his money bag.

When Ijams resisted, his assailant — described as a black man in his 20s and wearing a black coat — dragged him along the sidewalk while hitting him in the head with a silver pistol.

While he continued to whack Ijams in the head, the pistol went off, witnesses said.

. . .

Ijams, bleeding profusely from the head, fell to the sidewalk in front of a Starbucks as the robber got lost in the crowd carrying the bag filled with wads of bills.

“I saw the guy running” after leaving the victim on the ground, said Amado Delacruz, 34. “You don’t expect this — not on 56th Street, and especially not in front of Starbucks.”

And way to squeeze one off, asshole! If you’re going to beat someone over the head with your piece, try keeping the safety on . . .