By Tom Tracy
A thief responsible for breaking into lockers at neighborhood gyms was certainly breaking a sweat when he came across this month’s “Cops of the Month.” Sergeant Thomas Maloney and Police Officers Kevin Sheehan, Adeel Rana and Kevin Hiltunen were congratulated last week for arresting a man wanted for a string of locker break-ins at the Bally’s Gyms on Sheepshead Bay Road and Kings Highway. But, instead of just going through their victims’ pockets for cash, credit cards and other valuables, this alleged locker looter, identified 24-year-old Enis Kucevic of the 1600 block of East 13th Street, would take his victim’s car keys and then tour area streets looking for the car that the keys opened. “He [Kucevic] would find the cars and then take the cars,” Captain Vincent Stella, the commanding officer of the 61st Precinct told members of the 61st Precinct Community Council last week. “But our resident mastermind Tommy Maloney worked with the people at Bally’s to narrow the search down.” Stella explained that Maloney took the dates of the 16 locker break-ins – four of which included car thefts – and compared them to a list of Bally’s members in the gym at the time of the thefts. Using this tactic, Maloney managed to lower the number of members from several hundred to four people that were visiting the two gyms on two separate occasions. Maloney and his team were then alerted to the gym visits of these four people. They didn’t have to wait too long to find Kucevic walking out of the gym, allegedly trying to unlock cars with the keys he had just stolen. Kucevic was ultimately arrested at his home on December 29, after cops had spotted the 24-year-old allegedly getting into his victim’s car and driving off with it. He was charged with unauthorized use of a motor vehicle, grand larceny in the fourth degree and driving without a license. Kucevic later admitted to both the locker thefts and stealing the cars, claiming that he did it to fuel his growing heroin habit, sources said. Sergeant Maloney is the Intel Sergeant for the 61st Precinct and is responsible for putting together criminal patterns as well as designing strategies to stop these crimes. Police Officers Sheehan, Rana and Hiltunen are members of the 61st Precinct’s Anti-Crime Team. The 61st Precinct protects residents in Sheepshead Bay, Manhattan Beach, Homecrest and parts of Midwood.
