Bronx Deli Owner: Burglar Came Down Through Roof, Took Cash And Merchandise
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- A masked man comes out at night in the Bronx and he isn't afraid of heights – but he is certainly no superhero.
As CBS2's Sonia Rincon reported, the man is a burglar who has been caught on surveillance video lowering himself into a store through a hole in the roof.
The burglar can be in the video ransacking the place, prying open the cash register to get a few hundred dollars.
An employee who opened the Sylvia Deli and Grocery on Bruckner Boulevard in the Soundview section of the Bronx Wednesday morning found the area behind the register trashed. The employee called owner Naser Ahmed, who asked if there was any sign of a break-in.
"They said, 'No, everything's OK.' I said, 'So go to the back.' They come this way, and then they find this (damage to the ceiling)," Ahmed said. "And they look up, and they see the ceiling -- already busted."
Someone cut a hole through metal and wood to get through the roof and the ceiling of a back room at the deli -- and authorities believe he probably had some help. The burglar can be seen making phone calls while he is looking through the store.
The owner thinks the burglar, and whoever helped him, started out behind the building. It wouldn't have been too hard for them to climb a fence and get up over the awning to get onto the roof.
"I feel like whoever did it has to know the store, or has to be from the neighborhood, because of the way they were looking and where they were looking at," Ahmed said. "It's like they knew exactly where I have money."
In addition to the cash, the burglar helped himself to some instant lottery tickets, which will be of no use since they weren't activated.
"And they took some cigars and cigarettes and stuff like that, and headed back off the roof," Ahmed said.
The NYPD said the masked man got a total of about $1,200 in cash and merchandise altogether.
Ahmed said it was the first time his business has ever been targeted.
"We've been here in the neighborhood for 20 years," he said. "We've been good to the neighborhood. We have no problem with nobody."
Ahmed is hoping someone recognizes the burglar from this video and helps police track him down.
