Pizza Boy Charged With Rape; Residents Of Doorman Buildings On Edge
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- A 16-year-old pizza delivery boy has been charged as an adult on sexual assault charges, after he allegedly raped a 35-year-old woman in her own Upper West Side apartment just after midnight Saturday morning.
Police said Cesar Lucas of the Bronx told officers sexual urges led him to rape the woman, even as her daughter slept in the bed beside her.
The incident has some who live in doorman buildings concerned about their own safety.
"Absolutely horrific, it's frightening," one woman said.
Some residents said they do not lock their doors because they feel safe with a doorman in the lobby.
"To a degree I think I feel more comfortable," a Manhattan resident told CBS 2's Amy Dardashtian.
But others cautioned against that sense of security.
"The minute the doorman turns around to help somebody else to get into the building, next thing you know someone slips in," Upper East Side resident John Blau told Dardashtian.
After dropping off the pizza, Lucas went down the hallway looking for an unlocked apartment, police said.
The victim's family told Dardashtian that Lucas was upstairs for more than 20 minutes and no one went upstairs to see what was going on.
One doorman in a different building said that delay would be unacceptable at his job.
"Every delivery, every contractor, everybody carrying a package upstairs is escorted," doorman Tony Greci told Dardashtian.
The family told CBS 2 that the victim kept her door unlocked because her mother lives across the hall.
Prosecutors said the teen used his pizza boy job to commit another crime this summer.Police said Lucas was arrested for burglarizing an apartment at Silver Towers in Hell's Kitchen in August but kept his job at New York Sal's Pizzeria.
An attendant from the woman's building said a new policy has been implemented barring delivery men upstairs after 10 p.m.
Do you leave your apartment door unlocked in your doorman building? Will you be locking your door because of this incident? Share your comments below...
