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NYPD Partners Discover They Are Also Cousins After DNA Test

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) – The NYPD is one big family, sometimes, quite literally.

Among the 36,000 officers, two are just now realizing they share more in common than just the bond of the badge.

CBS2's Dick Brennan reports on how social media and old fashioned family stories played a role in the discovery.

As many NYPD partners do, this pair has always considered themselves more like brothers than co-workers.

NYPD partners cousins
NYPD officers Tyler Barbour (left) and Harley Greco (right). (Credit: CBS2)

"We always had each other's backs. We always had a good time together, got along great," Officer Harley Greco of the 19th Precinct said.

"We have always had that bond and chemistry, since he came to the 19th Precinct, we always had that special connection," Officer Tyler Barbour said.

It turns out 25-year-old Harley Greco of Port Jefferson and 26-year-old Tyler Barbour of Bayshore had more than just chemistry. They share DNA!

"Our great, great grandmothers are sisters," Greco said.

The discovery started with a Facebook post on Nov. 9. The 19th Precinct posted about a family heirloom being recovered from an Upper East Side storm drain. Followers started commenting, including relatives of both Greco and Barbour – connecting the two as distant cousins.

"That's when my grandma called me and said '"do you know a Tyler Barbour?' and I said yeah, I was just at his wedding, that's my partner and she said, well that's your cousin."

Officer Greco's grandmother took a DNA test earlier this year that confirms the finding. Officer Barbour was on his honeymoon when Greco called him.

"I thought he was messing with me, because that's what we do and then he goes into depth and I was like, 'oh wow, he's actually serious,'" Barbour said.

Both men have worked at the 19th Precinct for nearly two years and have been partners for five months.

"Every day I have to spend eight and a half hours with this guy."

They say they're shocked, but not surprised.

"Absolutely, it was definitely bizarre, but we get along so well that it wasn't really that surprising. Definitely a small world."

As for who thinks they got the better genes and is better looking?

"Oh, I am, absolutely… he's got the mustache," the officers joked.

One thing's for sure, blue blood runs deep in this extended family

Officer Barbour's uncle was also on the force as an NYPD detective. He's now retired. Their precinct has since nicknamed their patrol vehicle "the cousin car."

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