Burglar Targets Auto, Electronics Shops In Queens Spree: NYPD

QUEENS, NY -- Employees across Southeast Queens have arrived to work to find thousands of dollars in electronics and cash gone over the last month in a string of burglaries linked back to one masked man, police said.

Cops are searching for the man behind a black ski mask and six burglaries that began in early March and have since been reported as recently as Tuesday.

The reports all came from cell phone and auto repair shops - with the exception of one nightclub - within nine miles of each other. Each described missing electronics or cash, but the value of the goods stolen ranged anywhere from hundreds to thousands of dollars, police said.

The burglar's first - and most expensive - heist came from a cell phone store in Laurelton on March 3, police said. An employee called police to the shop on Merrick Boulevard near 220th Street at around 1 p.m. after he arrived for his shift and realized merchandise was missing, police said.

Investigators later determined a thief snuck in through an unlocked back door and stole around $22,000 worth of electronics, cops said.

The thief hit up his next target, Competitive Auto Sales, that same day. He broke into the used car dealership in Rosedale through a side door and stole $5,000 in electronics, police said.

Two more burglaries were reported just a half mile apart on March 12. The thief broke into Sunrise Auto Sales in Rosedale and stole around $630 in electronics before swiping around $2,500 from the safe of a nearby Metro PCS on 245th Street, investigators said.

The thief broke his pattern of auto and cell phone shop heists on March 27 when he broke into Square Biz, a nightclub in Queens Village, and stole more than $1,300 in electronics, police said.

The masked man last struck on Tuesday, forcing his way into All City Auto Sales through a window of the Queens Village used car dealer and leaving with $1,000 in electronics, cops said.

The NYPD on Thursday released surveillance photos of the man captured from his first break-in, where he's shown clad in head-to-toe black.

Anyone with information in regards to the burglaries is asked to call the NYPD's Crime Stoppers Hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477).

Lead photo via NYPD.