GRAMERCY — A career burglar out on parole from a previous breaking and entering conviction crept into a woman's bedroom while she watched television in the living room, according to a police report.
Angel Ortiz, 62, sneaked through the apartment window on East 17th Street between Irving Place and Third Avenue on Jan. 17, according to Deputy Inspector Brendan Timoney, commanding officer of the 13th Precinct.
The woman was in her living room watching TV at about 6:16 p.m. when she heard a noise coming from her bedroom, police said. When she went to investigate, she stumbled upon Ortiz rifling through her belongings and fled the apartment, according to police.
Ortiz, who was released early from a 12-year bid upstate for a previous burglary conviction, tried to escape the building through the basement, but another resident spotted him, alerted police and followed Ortiz to the corner of 19th Street and Third Avenue, where officers caught him, authorities said.
Prosecutors charged Ortiz with burglary and a judge ordered him held on $15,000 bail pending his next court date on Jan. 22, court records show.
Ortiz has a long history of burglary and robbery going back to 1975, and has spent just two of the past 25 years outside of prison, state records show. He was released on parole from Cayuga Correctional Facility, in Moravia, N.Y., on Feb. 25, 2015 after serving nearly 13 years for burglary, and before that stint he had been out of prison just one year after serving 11 years in prison for robbery, records show.
Ortiz is also a suspect in burglaries in other neighborhoods, according to Timoney.
"Not only was he hitting the 13th Precinct, he was also wanted on a couple of burglaries below 14th Street in the 9th Precinct where they were experiencing a spike in burgs as well," he said. "I have a feeling this guy was responsible for a lot of the burglaries in the area."
A lawyer for Ortiz did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
