HELL'S KITCHEN — Police are looking for a hoodie-wearing burglar they say broke into five apartments in Chelsea, Hell's Kitchen and Midtown East since the beginning of the year.
The NYPD says the man has the same method in each burglary: First he rings a building's buzzers to find out who isn't home, then he slips in behind a resident and breaks into an empty apartment using a credit card, grabbing valuables and fleeing.
So far, he's hit three buildings on the West Side from West 51st Street to West 53rd Street, along with a building in Midtown East and another in Chelsea. The apartments in each building showed little sign of forced entry, police said.
In three of the burglaries, the suspect was seen on security footage wearing a blue hoodie. In the two others, he was wearing a baseball cap, police said. Investigators believe he may have lived in Hell's Kitchen at one point.
Police released a photo of the man, wearing his signature hoodie, along with a black jacket and blue wool hat.
Anyone with information is asked to call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477).
