Crime

One suspect in Bay Ridge home invasion nabbed by cops

October 9, 2019 Jaime DeJesus

Image via Reddit

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BAY RIDGE — One of the three suspects wanted in a Bay Ridge home invasion in which one man dressed up as a Fed-Ex employee and another as a cop tied up three people inside the house, and stole cash and jewelry worth over $100,000, was arrested by cops on Oct. 8.

According to the NYPD, 53-year-old Santiago Mateo of Manhattan was arrested and charged with robbery, burglary, unlawful imprisonment and criminal impersonation of an officer in the startling Sept. 23 home invasion at Ovington and Sixth avenues.

The crime received a great deal of attention online, with footage from surveillance cameras posted on Reddit that showed a man dressed in a Fed-Ex uniform approach the home with a package in hand, ringing the bell.

In the same video, another man, dressed as a police officer, also went inside the home, holding a badge and told the victims, “Police! Don’t move!”

Once inside, the video shows the intruders tying up the three suspects with duct tape, finding a safe and yelling at one of the victims to open it before stealing $45,000 in cash, $65,000 in diamond rings and $15,000 diamond earrings.

“UPDATE” an arrest has been made regarding a home invasion that occurred on Monday 9/23/19 in #BayRidge #Brooklyn with a suspect in custody. @JustinBrannan @agounardes @MaxRose4NY pic.twitter.com/iN5rKMSazU
— NYPD 68th Precinct (@NYPD68Pct) October 8, 2019

The video also shows the suspect dressed as a cop grabbing the safe, which he found in a hall closet on the second floor.

The suspects fled in a blue sport utility vehicle driven by a third unidentified individual.

A source with knowledge of the investigation who spoke on condition of anonymity had told this paper shortly after the burglary that the home invasion, “was an inside job. It was not a random crime. Restaurant owners who kept a ton of cash and jewelry in their home. The burglars knew that.”

The source also added that “cops are confident they’ll catch [the perpetrators] soon.”

“The NYPD really did a tremendous job here,” Councilmember Justin Brannan told this paper. “Everyone saw there was clear video of the crime but because the footage was shared so widely all over national media, the suspects went into deep hiding — so this was not an easy arrest by any means. From the Detective Bureau, to the field intelligence officers and to the local patrol cops, this was an all-hands-on-deck effort. Great job all around.”

The investigation remains ongoing.