You are reading

Astoria Package Thief Arrested

thief

Sept. 23, 2015 By Jackie Strawbridge

Police have arrested a local man who was caught on video swiping packages from a neighbor’s stoop.

Last week, Cecilia Leon, who lives on 24th Street in the Ditmars area, posted a video on Facebook of a man casually grabbing packages from her front steps while talking on the phone. The video was taken with a home security camera.

According to police, the man had been arrested as recently as Sept. 14 for stealing packages from a UPS truck.

“A week later, he’s out, and he’s stealing packages off people’s front steps,” Captain Peter Fortune, Commanding Officer of the 114 Precinct, said.

Leon’s video led directly to the man’s next arrest on Monday, when he was apprehended wearing the “exact same outfit” captured in the surveillance footage, Fortune said.

“I was so amazed,” Leon said of the arrest. “I thought I was being overly optimistic. I was hoping they would catch him, but when they told me they actually caught him wearing the same clothes he was wearing in the video, I just said, ‘oh man. Good job.’”

The man has allegedly stolen over $1,000 worth of packages, with at least one UPS truck and two stoops known to have been hit, officers with the 114 Precinct said.

According to Captain Fortune, the man is currently in custody.

email the author: news@queenspost.com

4 Comments

Click for Comments 

Leave a Comment
Reply to this Comment

All comments are subject to moderation before being posted.

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Recent News

Surveillance photos released of gunman sought in murder of East Elmhurst woman: NYPD

The NYPD on Tuesday released surveillance images of the suspected gunman who allegedly shot a young woman to death inside her East Elmhurst home on the night of Friday, Sept. 12.

Police from the 115th Precinct in Jackson Heights responded to a 911 call of an assault in progress at 26-30 96th St. at 9:20 p.m. Upon arrival, officers found 21-year-old Dashanna Donovan with a gunshot wound to the head. EMS pronounced her dead at the scene.