A teen from Brooklyn is in cuffs for allegedly carrying out a Ridgewood burglary pattern in which he duped residents into letting him into multi-family apartments and removed thousands of dollars’ worth of electronics and clothing.
According to the criminal complaints provided by the Queens District Attorney’s office, Rasheem Monroe, 18, is being charged in four burglary attempts — two in the same building on the same night — over a span of 10 days.
The first incident occurred between the hours of 8 and 8:30 p.m. on Aug. 13 inside of an apartment on Himrod Street. Police said that Monroe was seen walking into the building by the victim and he told her that he was “going to meet my friends on the third floor.”
The victim then followed Monroe, the complaint notes, and witnessed him turn onto the second floor. When she returned to her apartment later that night, cops added, she found it to be in disarray, and two pairs of Yeezy sneakers, two video game controllers, three video games, a PlayStation 4, an Xbox One, a pair of Beats headphones, a Michael Kors watch, and a black wallet containing $1,500 to be missing from the location.
According to the criminal complaint, the following two incidents took place between 5:30 and 6:30 p.m. on Aug. 16 in an apartment building on Menahan Street, where he told someone at the door that he was going inside to meet his friend.
In his first attempt, Monroe was thwarted when he tried to enter an apartment that was occupied by the owner, police said. When he saw the owner of the apartment, Monroe said that he was looking for his friend and accidentally entered the wrong apartment.
After the failed burglary, law enforcement agents said, Monroe continued through the building until he found an empty apartment, where he lifted three Apple laptops, three Apple iPads, a Playstation 4, and a wallet containing various credit and debit cards. Everything is estimated to be worth more than $3,000.
Finally, on Aug. 22, between 6:35 and 6:45 p.m., Monroe was seen trying to gain access to a fenced area surrounding an apartment building on Grove Street, the complaint noted. When he couldn’t gain access by pushing against the door, police added, Monroe left the location.
Officers from the 104th Precinct responded to each incident and have statements from Monroe admitting that it was him depicted in surveillance photos in three of the incidents.
For his involvement in the burglaries, Monroe was variously charged with burglary, criminal possession of stolen property, grand larceny and criminal trespassing.
Monroe was arraigned on Aug. 23 before Queens Criminal Court Judge Toni Cimino, who set bail at $20,000 bond/$10,000 cash. He is due back to court on Sept. 6.
