Video: Thieves drag ATM out of Brooklyn deli; wanted in 41 store break-ins across NYC
A five-person burglary crew has targeted dozens of stores across Brooklyn and Queens over the past six months, hauling out ATM machines and stealing tens of thousands of dollars in cash, cops said.
The bandits have hit 41 stores since December, and on Thursday, police released video of one of their capers last month, hoping someone might recognize the suspect in the footage.
The thieves first struck a Pay-O-Matic check-cashing store on Graham Ave. at Boerum St. in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, about 2:20 a.m. Dec. 2. Since then, they’ve hit check cashing sites, nail salons, bodegas and other stores in neighborhoods like Bedford-Stuyvesant Brownsville and Kew Gardens, Queens.
The crooks also stole a 2002 Dodge parked on Union St. near Albany Ave. in Crown Heights on April 1, cops said.
Police released video of a heist from May 24, at the New Jersey Deli on the corner of Fulton St. and New Jersey Ave. in Cypress Hills, showing one of the crooks dragging an ATM machine across the floor about 2:45 a.m.
The thief, who wears a dark hooded sweatshirt, a mask and blue surgical gloves, can be seen moving boxes of food and other items out of the way as he brings the ATM to a broken window, where an accomplice waits outside.
The crew’s most recent break-in took place just after 1 a.m. June 2 at the Elton Deli on Elton St. at Stanley St. in East New York, cops said.
In all, the thieves have gotten away with more than $60,000 cash, police said.
Cops ask anyone with information to call Crime Stoppers at (800) 577-TIPS.
