{"id":145585,"date":"2026-02-26T02:21:32","date_gmt":"2026-02-26T02:21:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/145585\/"},"modified":"2026-02-26T02:21:32","modified_gmt":"2026-02-26T02:21:32","slug":"womans-boots-set-on-fire-by-two-men-after-she-refused-kiss-in-manhattan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/145585\/","title":{"rendered":"Woman’s boots set on fire by two men after she refused kiss in Manhattan"},"content":{"rendered":"

A woman\u2019s boots were destroyed after two men \u2014 including one wearing a \u201cMake America Great Again\u201d hat \u2014 lit them on fire while spewing racist remarks after she refused to kiss one of them in Manhattan, cops said Wednesday.<\/p>\n

Police released surveillance images of the two suspects and are asking for the public\u2019s help tracking them down.<\/p>\n

The 54-year-old victim was approached by the suspects, who struck up a conversation with her on W. 26th St and Seventh Ave. in Chelsea around 2:50 p.m. on Feb. 19, cops said.<\/p>\n

\"CopsCops are hunting these two men wanted for setting a woman’s boots on fire on Feb. 19 after she refused to kiss one of them in Manhattan. (NYPD)<\/p>\n

As they were talking, one of the men leaned in for a kiss and the woman shoved him away, leading the suspect to make anti-black statements, according to law enforcement.<\/p>\n

The woman was attempting to leave when the men stopped her and then took out a lighter, which they used to set her boots ablaze, said police.<\/p>\n

The victim was uninjured by the arson, but her $89 boots were destroyed, cops said.<\/p>\n

The arson is being investigated by the NYPD\u2019s Hate Crimes Task Force.<\/p>\n

Anyone with information is asked to call Crime Stoppers<\/a> at (800) 577-TIPS. All calls will be kept confidential.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A woman\u2019s boots were destroyed after two men \u2014 including one wearing a \u201cMake America Great Again\u201d hat…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":145586,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[262,263,266,85,267,75,84,83,9,24,264,12,63,261,265],"class_list":{"0":"post-145585","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-manhattan","8":"tag-city","9":"tag-county","10":"tag-crime-and-public-safety","11":"tag-latest-headlines","12":"tag-local-news","13":"tag-manhattan","14":"tag-manhattan-headlines","15":"tag-manhattan-news","16":"tag-new-york","17":"tag-new-york-city","18":"tag-new-york-county","19":"tag-news","20":"tag-nyc","21":"tag-nyc-crime","22":"tag-sub-county-region"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145585","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=145585"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145585\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/145586"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=145585"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=145585"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=145585"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}