Source: Carjack suspect charged in similar attack from last week

WEDNESDAY WASN'T the first time Nathaniel Rodriguez allegedly used a gun to ambush and kidnap a terrified woman.

In fact, police sources said Thursday night, he's accused of doing the same thing just five days earlier in almost the same location.

Rodriguez, 40, was behind bars Thursday night, charged with aggravated assault, robbery, kidnapping, firearms violations and related offenses.

The list of charges stems from an attack about 6 a.m. Wednesday, when he allegedly confronted a female doctor inside a parking garage on 8th Street near Delancey, across from Pennsylvania Hospital.

Rodriguez allegedly forced the doctor, at gunpoint, into her nearby Honda Fit.

Together, they drove to an Exxon in Port Richmond, where Rodriguez tried to get the victim, 28, to withdraw money from an ATM inside the gas station's convenience store.

He was foiled, however, by quick-thinking clerk Manveer Singh, who scared Rodriguez off and called police.

Rodriguez was pulled over later that day by two officers who had tracked him, via the victim's cellphone, to A and Allegheny streets in Kensington, police said.

And when detectives grilled Rodriguez about that incident, they put together enough evidence to link him to an eerily similar crime:

A 30-year-old woman flagged down officers just before 6 a.m. Nov. 6 on 8th Street near South in Bella Vista.

She told them that as she was stopped at a red light on her walk to work at nearby Pennsylvania Hospital, a man approached her, blocking her path, according to the police source.

He pulled a gun from his jacket and said, "Give me your money," the woman told detectives. Problem was, she was carrying no cash, as she proved by showing her attacker her empty wallet.

But the greedy bandit saw her debit card, marched her to two ATMs in the area, and was able to nab $300 from her. Then he hailed a cab on 8th Street and fled.

That man was Rodriguez, according to the source. Court records show he's been charged with the same set of offenses from Wednesday's incident in that earlier crime.

And they aren't the only entries on his rap sheet - not even the only entries from this month.

Rodriguez was arrested Nov. 2 and Nov. 8 for two theft cases, court records show.

His criminal activity before that includes a variety of guilty convictions from across the state.

They include a 1998 guilty plea to criminal conspiracy - a felony - in a Montgomery County theft case; a similar plea in 2007 in Blair County for a drug case; and a 2009 assault conviction in Bedford County.

Rodriguez also was active in the city: Court records show he has convictions for theft as well as gun and drug violations as far back as 1996 in Philadelphia.

He remained in custody Thursday night in lieu of 10 percent of $2 million bail.

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