Capt. John Travaglia tells attendees at the Communities of Maspeth and Elmhurst Together civic group that police arrested the man responsible for eight burglaries in Maspeth and Middle Village. Forum Newsgroup photo by Jeremiah Dobruck.
Police arrested a man and his accomplice who allegedly left a swath of eight overnight burglaries in Maspeth and Middle Village through the month of May.
In the middle of last month, the 104th Precinct warned residents that someone was slipping through open windows overnight and stealing anything left in plain sight.
A little more than a week later, on May 30, police announced a neighboring precinct caught the suspect—who admitted to 13 burglaries, including the eight in Maspeth and Middle Village.
Capt. Michael Cody, commanding officer of the 104th Precinct, said officers from the neighboring 108th Precinct picked up Jefferson Villarama near 51st Avenue and 63rd Street where he was allegedly burgling another home.
That arrest triggered an investigation into other recent crimes, and the officers managed to get Villarama to point out houses throughout the neighborhood he admitted to burgling, police said.
He is now facing charges for all those crimes.
The eight he pointed out in the 104th Precinct stretched from 52nd Road down to Juniper Valley Road.
“Those were all part of the pattern that we were able to close out,” said Capt. John Travaglia, executive officer of the 104th Precinct.
The 104th and 108th precincts are now doing follow-up work to identify stolen property Villarama allegedly took.
Travaglia said some property was already recovered when officers arrested Villarama, but now they are checking pawnshops and trying to trace back the items to their owners.
“It’s going to close out that pattern, but there is obviously still work to be done,” Travaglia said.
Cody too promised he’d keep some extra resources dedicated to the area, but said the arrest should help calm the spike of burglaries that happened in May.
“This arrest should certainly affect the recent condition,” Cody said in an email to residents.
By Jeremiah Dobruck
j.dobruck@theforumnewsgroup.com
