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Staten Island Thief Raids Unlocked Work Trucks, Scores Thousands Of Dollars In Equipment

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- The search is on for a burglar with a taste for tools. Investigators say he's struck several times on Staten Island, taking thousands of dollars worth of equipment.

Rocco Rivera told CBS2's Hazel Sanchez that he walked into his work site on Herberton Ave on Staten Island for just a few minutes. When he returned to his truck, he'd been robbed.

"I said, 'ah, they got me.' Just that fast, a bag of drills, two saws, a screw gun, a sawzall, a box of electrical tools," he said.

Rivera said his loss is worth more than $1,000.

"One drill is a day's pay," he said.

Police said someone stole nearly $1,300 worth of landscaping equipment from another worker's van parked on the same street in November.

Police said since mid-November at least half a dozen work vehicles have been broken into in the Port Richmond and Elm Park sections of Staten Island.

The most recent one happened in front of a home where surveillance cameras were rolling.

Police are now looking for a bald man with glasses seen lurking outside of a home on Trantor Place on the morning of January 13.

It was around the same time when investigators said someone smashed the window of a work vehicle parked on Trantor Place, snatching nearly $1,700 worth of tools.

"I won't leave no tools here. They got me once, they won't get me again. It's too expensive to replace your tools again," Rivera said.

His family bought him a new set of drills and other tools.

He warned construction crews not to gamble, leaving valuable equipment in clear eye sight -- making it easy for thieves to hit the jackpot.

 

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