NYC Doorman Steals $477K From Retired Residents, Prosecutors Say

UPPER WEST SIDE, NY — An Upper West Side doorman has pleaded guilty to stealing $477,685 from a retired New York City schoolteacher and her husband who lived in the building where he worked, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg said.

According to Bragg, the defendant, 38-year-old Alfredo Mateo, deposited 26 stolen checks and wrote most of them to himself from the 91-year-old teacher's bank account, with false explanations in the memo line, starting on Sept. 2, 2022, just one day after the teacher's husband, who lived in their 380 Riverside Drive apartment, died.

In addition to the checks, the defendant stole a form mailed to the woman at the apartment building from the Teachers’ Retirement System of the City of New York and used the information to get money from the teacher's pension and annuity between May and October 2023, Bragg said.

After the teacher died in July 2023, the doorman sought to change the direct deposit from her bank account to his personal bank account, calling the Teachers’ Retirement System of the City of New York on the phone and impersonating the woman, when he was caught, Bragg said.

"Using more than two dozen stolen checks, Alfredo Mateo depleted the bank accounts these New Yorkers built over the course of decades of hard work," Bragg said.

"While both victims have sadly passed away, we were determined to hold Mateo accountable for this disturbing fraud."

Mateo pleaded guilty in a New York State Supreme Court Wednesday to grand larceny and identity theft, and is expected to be sentenced to a promised term of between one and three years in state prison and a forfeiture of $115,638.

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