Cops arrest suspected deception burglar on Bay Ridge subway platform

Cops arrested a deception burglary suspect on the evening of Saturday, May 14, on the platform of the Bay Ridge Avenue station.

According to 68^th Precinct commander Captain Joseph Hayward, the individual in question – who allegedly had been “going to people’s doors saying he was a utility person, and trying to get into the apartment using a bogus ID” – resisted arrest, and even bit one of the responding officers.

Said Hayward, “The officers went to go stop him. He fled. They chased him and he resisted arrest so they had to call for assistance.”

At that point, a large number of police officers showed up, Hayward added, because they were already in the neighborhood when the 10-13 call came through. Slightly earlier, he said, “An off-duty cop noticed someone trying to break into his house through a window, in the same vicinity, so all the people who responded to that then responded to the second incident.”

The suspect in the attempted break-in – who, said Hayward, “had been arrested numerous times on burglary charges” – was also arrested. “Officers did a great job in both incidents,” Hayward told this paper.

Deception burglaries have been an issue in the neighborhood, he noted, with senior citizens often the targets.

Numerous witnesses filmed the arrest on the subway platform, with at least one posting the video to Facebook alleging “police brutality,” in part because of the large number of officers present at the scene. There have been “no allegations by the perp against the police,” said Hayward.