A pint-sized career burglar who has been in and out of cuffs since the age of 10 was busted in a new string of thefts — but was continually set loose to continue his sticky-fingered ways until he ditched a court-ordered drug program, law enforcement sources said.
Paul Schroeder – a 5-foot-4, 150-pound thief who sources say has 31 unsealed arrests for robbery, assault and criminal sale of a controlled substance – was nabbed on Jan. 24 after he allegedly ripped off random items including a Snickers bar and Goldfish crackers from a CVS store in Forest Hills, according to a criminal complaint.
The now 50-year-old thief had his first brush with the law in 1984, when he was linked to a burglary in Clinton Hill, Brooklyn, sources said.
The then 10-year-old Schroeder was only 4-foot-3 and weighed 75 pounds at the time, according to the sources.
In the latest case – 40 years later – Schroeder was also accused of swiping a greeting card, a flashlight and medical wrap from the store shelves before stuffing them into the pockets of his sweater, the complaint states.
Schroeder, of Cypress Hills, “knowingly misrepresented” his own identity to cops, police said.
Once in cuffs for that theft, investigators also determined that Schroeder was responsible for a New Year’s Eve heist at a nail salon on 116th Street in Queens’ Little Guyana neighborhood, according to that complaint.
Surveillance video viewed by authorities shows him carrying a crowbar as he walks into the business and snatches up a speaker, as well as a box of cash, the court document alleges.
He was also connected to an Aug., 22, 2022 theft at a business on Jamaica Avenue in Woodhaven, cops and prosecutors said.
In that case, he burst into the basement, broke into the office and removed $180 from the register, police said.
Charges on the three offenses included burglary, petit larceny and criminal possession of stolen property, according to the complaints.
About two months later, he was arrested for allegedly burglarizing a Pentecostal church, and then an hour later, a deli around the corner, in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.
He was initially released on his own recognizance because the charges weren’t bail-eligible, according to the Kings County District Attorney’s Office.
He pleaded guilty to third-degree burglary in connection to those crimes and was ordered to attend a court-mandated drug treatment program.
But when he never showed up at that program – and because of his new arrests in Queens – Brooklyn prosecutors executed a warrant and he was ordered held without bail on Feb. 1, prosecutors said.
That keeps him behind bars until his sentencing on Feb. 15, although bail was set at a mere $1 in connection to the Queens cases, records show.
Brooklyn prosecutors will request that Schroeder face between 3.5 and 7 years in lockup — the maximum sentence.
If their request is granted, it won’t be Schroeder’s only stint behind bars.
Beginning in August 2020, Schroeder served about nine months in state prison on a Queens burglary conviction, before he was released on parole in May 2021, online State Corrections records show.
His post-release supervision expired on Dec. 8, according to the department.
He served six other sentences in state prison for offenses including burglary, criminal sale of a controlled substance, bail jumping and assault – dating back to 1994, department records show.
During that period, he has also used the aliases John Schroder and Mark Perry, according to the inmate directory.
Schroeder is represented by Legal Aid Society attorney Juliette-noor Hajj in the new Queens cases.
A representative for the society declined comment to The Post.
