Police: Burglary Suspect Targeting Queens Neighborhood
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- Police are hoping surveillance video will help them find a man who they say is wanted in connection with a burglary spree in Queens.
An apartment building on Himrod Street and Cypress Avenue is the most recent location where police say three of the burglaries alone happened between last Friday and Monday, CBS2's Erin Logan reported.
Police say since Dec. 31 of last year, he's broken into homes 31 times, stealing everything from perfume to expensive jewelry to thousands of dollars in cash.
In some cases, police said there were multiple burglaries in the same building.
From Jan. 19 to the 23, police said he targeted a building on Madison Street and 64th street, breaking into three different apartments.
In one of the incidents, he entered through the fire escape and removed a plastic bag of perfume. Police said the victim was away in Florida.
He came back to the building on the 23rd, again entering through a fire escape and removing a camera, an Apple MacBook Pro and other items.
Then on Feb. 13, police said he hit Woodbine Street and St. Nicholas Avenue. A woman came home to her apartment and noticed it was ransacked, but nothing was taken.
On that same day in a different apartment in that same building, police said a woman was sleeping when she noticed the man with a flashlight walking into her room. She screamed and called 911 and the suspect took off.
The victim later discovered damage to the door frame of her apartment and the deadbolt lock broken off.
Some residents are unsettled by the spree.
"We get some nice people in the neighborhood now-a-days, it's a shame," one resident told WCBS 880's Marla Diamond. "It could be dangerous."
"I don't know what to say but they better catch this guy," another resident told 1010 WINS' Glenn Schuck. "I'm very afraid because my wife's home alone at this time and she's pregnant. I worry every day."
Police released surveillance video of the suspect from an incident on Cypress Avenue and Harman Street.
Anyone with information is asked to call the NYPD's Crime Stoppers Hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477) or for Spanish, 1-888-57-PISTA (74782), visit www.nypdcrimestoppers.com or text tips to 274637 (CRIMES) then enter TIP577.
