Thanks to good police work, a suspect in a string of Gravesend burglaries has been arrested, and a stolen dog returned to its owner.
Plainclothes cops serving at the 62nd Precinct arrested Cory Gaudio, 23, on Thurs., Jan. 24 after recognizing him from surveillance video recorded at one of four homes that had been hit in the vicinity of West 12th Street and Highlawn Avenue.
According to the NYPD, the officers, P.O. Nicholas Occhipinti and P.O. Anthony Brucato, made the arrest at about 4:45 p.m. at the suspect’s home, where they recognized a golden retriever named Scooby that had previously been stolen from one of the homes that had been burglarized. The two cops also recognized several objects that had been reported stolen and that were left out in the open.
The following day, after having received a search warrant, the officers were back at the home where they found a variety of items including narcotic pills, a machete, a sword, a metal knuckled knife, an expandable baton, electronic equipment, jewelry, a police scanner tuned to the 62nd Precinct frequency, credit and debit cards, various pieces of identification including green cards, passports and a driver’s license, and a dog leash with the name “Scooby” embroidered.
The NYPD is still looking for victims to come forward and identify some of the items that were recovered from the suspect’s house.
Gaudio was charged with two counts of attempted burglary, two counts of burglary, three counts of criminal possession of a controlled substance, two counts of criminal possession of a weapon, two counts of criminal possession of stolen property, criminal use of drug paraphernalia, unlawful possession of radio devices and violation of local laws.
Scooby was returned to its owner.