HELL'S KITCHEN — Police arrested a repeat burglar who stole more than $4,500 worth of high-end liquor from a 10th Avenue bar, the NYPD said.
Martin Rodriguez, 47, broke into the White Oak Oyster Bar & Cocktail Lounge at 810 10th Ave. between West 53rd and 54th streets three times in four days, police said. He was arrested and charged with burglary at about 9 p.m. on Dec. 3, just a day after the NYPD released video showing him inside and outside the bar.
Police said Rodriguez has been arrested 35 times since 1985, with 13 of those — all for burglary — happening in the past year.
Rodriguez hit the bar on Friday, Nov. 27, about 4:37 a.m., using a crowbar to open a liquor closet and taking 100 bottles of booze worth $4,000, police said last week.
His second burglary attempt on Nov. 29 was unsuccessful, but the next day he managed to make off with 12 bottles of rum worth $528, the NYPD said.
White Oak’s owner suspects Rodriguez entered the bar without permission six times before the Nov. 27 burglary — once on Nov. 22 and Nov. 23, twice on Nov. 24, twice on Nov. 25, and once on Nov. 26, according to a criminal complaint from the Manhattan District Attorney’s office.
Rodriguez told a detective from the Midtown North Precinct that he used a card to “jimmy the lock” on a door to the bar that can be accessed by going through the lobby of a residential portion of the building, the complaint said. He admitted to taking both liquor and food from the establishment, the complaint added.
On Monday, White Oak bar manager Shelby Griffith, 23, said the bar has added new locks and changed some of its old ones since the burglaries occurred.
“We’re relieved that he got caught, but a lot was missing,” she said. “We actually didn’t fill up the [liquor] case [again] until we knew he got caught.”
