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Serial Burglar Returned to Life of Crime 2 Weeks After Release, Police Say

By Noah Hurowitz | March 31, 2017 2:57pm | Updated on April 3, 2017 8:55am
 Tony Scott, 31, is accused of a series of burglaries in Manhattan, according to a criminal complaint.
Tony Scott, 31, is accused of a series of burglaries in Manhattan, according to a criminal complaint.
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Department of Corrections and Community Supervision

MANHATTAN — A career burglar stole electronics and cash from a school for autistic children and a handful of offices across Manhattan during a two-week break-in spree just weeks after being paroled from his most recent prison term, according to prosecutors.

Tony Scott, 31, was arrested March 8 after police linked him to the break-ins with the help of the distinctive “I Am Brooklyn” baseball hat that he was seen wearing on surveillance cameras at each crime scene in Chelsea, Flatiron, Midtown, SoHo, and Greenwich Village, according to a criminal complaint.

Scott, who had been released from Cape Vincent Correctional Facility on Jan. 19 after serving three years for a 2014 burglary conviction, returned to a life of crime on Feb. 2, when he snuck into an apartment inside 22 Mercer St. between Howard and Grand streets at about 9 p.m. and stole an iPad and a MacBook Air, according to the complaint.

Over the next two weeks, he followed a similar pattern at six other businesses, according to a criminal complaint:

►On Feb. 7, just after 7:30 p.m., he snuck into an office inside 628 Broadway between East Houston and Bleecker streets, where he stole three laptops, according to the complaint.

►On Feb. 16 he broke into an office inside 727 Seventh Ave. in Midtown, where he swiped $2,000 in cash from a lockbox, according to prosecutors.

►On Feb. 22, he strolled into an office inside 122 W. 26th St. between Sixth and Seventh avenues and swiped a pair of MacBooks, prosecutors said.

►On Feb. 26 Scott snuck into an office inside 137 W. 25th St., just across the street from his previous mark, and swiped three tablets and a digital camera, prosecutors said.

►On March 3, at about 5:22 p.m., Scott sneaked into a school for autistic children on East 30th St., where he stole four Dell laptops, an iPad, three cameras, and a MacBook Pro, prosecutors said.

►On March 6, just after 7:33 p.m., he crept into an office inside 40 W. 25th St. between Broadway and Fifth Avenue — this time ditching his Brooklyn hat for a black knit cap — and stole five MacBooks, prosecutors said.

Investigators linked the incidents, and after showing surveillance photos of Scott to his parole officer for confirmation, arrested him on March 8, prosecutors said. A grand jury indicted him on seven felony counts of burglary and grand larceny, records show. He was arraigned on March 24, and a judge ordered him held on $100,000 bail, according to a spokeswoman for the Manhattan District Attorney’s office.

Scott, who in addition to his recent sentence had done a previous five-year stint at Riverview Correctional Facility for burglary from 2007 to 2012, is due back in court on April 12, records show.

Scott’s lawyer did not immediately respond to a request for comment.