A group of bandits broke into more than a dozen homes in ritzy NYC neighborhoods, swiping nearly 10 luxury cars in a cross-borough operation that spanned three months.
The car thieves stole a Porsche, Mercedes, Range Rover and other high-end vehicles from driveways in Queens and Brooklyn from June through August, police said.
They were still on the loose Sunday night.
The gang typically worked in groups of four and three and targeted homes primarily in the affluent neighborhood of Whitestone but also hit houses in Bayside, Jamaica Estates, Holliswood, Manhattan Beach and Bay Ridge.
They would strike in the early morning hours — often when the homeowners were asleep inside.
The gang of thieves first began their crime spree on June 2 at a home near Point Crescent but were run out by the homeowner before they could take anything, cops said.
Later that month, the robbery crew hit two other homes but left empty-handed each time after they were confronted by a homeowner in the first place and were scared off by a security alarm at the second.
Their next stop, on July 21, was more fruitful. They broke into a home near 222nd Street and 41st Road in Queens at 1 a.m. and stole various items including an Audi SUV, cops said.
The following day, four of the thieves stole a BMW sedan from a house near 291th Street and 38th Avenue in Queens.
They struck again the day after that and swiped a Range Rover SUV and a Porsche from a home near Cambridge Road and Somerset Street — and again a day when they drove away with jewelry, clothes, cash and a Mercedes Benz from a home near Ridge Boulevard and 77th Street in Brooklyn, police said.
The bandits snatched clothes, a Genesis sedan, and a BMW SUV from other residences in July, while fleeing from other homes empty-handed after the home alarm system went off, according to cops.
Their last known burglary was on Aug. 2.
Three of the thieves got inside a home near Coleridge Street and Oriental Boulevard in Brooklyn and swiped jewelry, clothing, a Mercedes Benz and a BMW SUV, police said.
Cops have recovered the stolen BMW sedan, a Mercedes Benz sedan and the Genesis sedan but the other vehicles remain missing.
While overall burglaries across NYC are down from a year earlier, car thefts have surged by roughly 19% year over year, NYPD crime data shows.
Police released images of the alleged crooks Sunday. The NYPD is asking anyone with information on the carjacking string to call the NYPD’s Crime Stoppers Hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477) or for Spanish, 1-888-57-PISTA (74782).
