Dude in Santa Suit Arrested on Manhattan Rooftop

GREENWICH VILLAGE, MANHATTAN — A man in a Santa costume was arrested on an NYC rooftop on Dec. 12, the same night as the city’s notorious SantaCon festival, after allegedly breaking into a Greenwich Village apartment and threatening to kill its tenant.

The victim told police that this costumed Santa man — later identified by police as 26-year-old East Village resident Curtis Moran — pushed his way into the Leroy Street apartment just before 10 p.m. and shouted, ”Gun! I’ll kill you!”

Moran then allegedly began hurling things all over the apartment, breaking a glass in the process.

DNAinfo reported that the victim locked himself in a bathroom and called 911. ”When he came out of the bathroom, he found his apartment ransacked, with clothes and objects thrown all over the place, and a broken glass,” according to the news site.

The victim’s neighbor recounted the bizarre scene in an interview with the New York Daily News:

“Somebody was banging on his door tremendously — knocking and knocking and knocking — so he opens the door and some guy in a Santa Claus costume pushes him in. It’s like a big guy, a really big powerful guy. He’s drunk, or on some kind of drugs — I remember [the victim] telling the police that he had like these glazed eyeballs. They’re fighting.”

By the time police arrived, Moran had allegedly climbed onto the building’s rooftop.

“He was arrested on the roof,” an NYPD spokeswoman told Patch. ”No firearm was recovered.”

Moran’s charges have since been reduced from felony burglary to misdemeanor trespassing, according to his lawyer, Elizabeth Crotty.

Crotty declined to say whether her client had been participating in SantaCon festivities.

“He looks forward to resolving this matter and moving on with his life,” the attorney said in a statement sent to Patch.

Aside from a couple brawls and hospitalizations, SantaCon ran relatively smoothly on its route from Williamsburg to the East Village this year — especially when compared to years past.