String of armed robberies leads to arrest

An Islip Terrace man who was accused of robbing four Islip nail salons at gunpoint last December has been charged with five additional armed robberies of salons across Nassau County — one of them in Franklin Square — that police said he committed that same month.

According to police, Salvatore Scimeca, 55, robbed businesses in Valley Stream, Wantagh and New Hyde Park as well between Dec. 23 and 30. Scimeca was arrested on May 13 at Nassau County Jail in East Meadow, where he was filling out paperwork related to the first set of robberies, for which he was charged, police told the Herald.

The second string of robberies began two days before Christmas, at Tiffany’s Nail & Spa Palace on Rockaway Avenue in Valley Stream. According to police, Scimeca, wearing a blue bandana over his face, showed a black handgun to a woman employee and demanded money from the register. The woman complied, handing over an undetermined amount of cash, and Scimeca fled on foot.

His next target, police said, was Angel Nail & Spa, on Hempstead Turnpike in Franklin Square, on Dec. 26 at 6:24 p.m. According to detectives, he was wearing a black mask this time, but, as he had three days earlier, he showed a woman employee a handgun and demanded money from the register. She, too, complied, giving him an undetermined amount of cash before he fled eastbound on Hempstead Turnpike.

Similar incidents took place on Dec. 27, 28 and 30, police said, at Nail Fetish, on Rockaway Avenue in Valley Stream; Tony’s Angel Nails, on Merrick Road in Wantagh; and Cleo Nails and Spa, on Hillside Avenue in New Hyde Park. In each case, according to detectives, Scimeca wore a mask, brandished a gun and fled with cash. At Tony’s he helped himself to the cash register, police said, and at Cleo Nails he announced the robbery.

He was charged with five additional counts of first-degree robbery and arraigned at First District Court in Hempstead.