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Burglar Who Hid in Closet Caught Thanks to Stray Fingerprint: NYPD

 Phoenix Goines, 33, is accused of breaking into an office building at 114 W. 26th St. and stealing eight laptops, according to a police report.
Phoenix Goines, 33, is accused of breaking into an office building at 114 W. 26th St. and stealing eight laptops, according to a police report.
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Department of Corrections and Community Supervision

CHELSEA — A career burglar who fooled security guards at a Manhattan office building after he was discovered hiding in a closet was caught when investigators matched him to a fingerprint at the scene, according to a police report.

Police caught up with Phoenix Goines, 33, in connection to an April 22 burglary at an advertising agency on the eighth floor of 114 W. 26th St., in which Goines is accused of stealing thousands of dollars in laptops, according to a police report.

The suspect broke into the office barely a month after being released from Riverview Correctional Facility, where he served a three-year bid for burglary, according to police and state Department of Corrections records.

Goines managed to pull off the April 22 burglary even after an employee in the building found him hiding in a utility closet, police said. 

When he was discovered lingering in a closet at the office, Goines told the employee he was just looking for a place to charge his phone, and when he was brought down to the security desk, the guards let Goines return upstairs, according to Deputy Inspector Brendan Timoney, commanding officer of the 13th Precinct, who relayed the tale at a meeting of the precinct’s community council last month.

Once he got back upstairs, Goines hid in a stairwell until all of the employees had left, and then went into the office to swipe eight laptops worth a total of $5,500, police said.

The NYPD released security stills showing a man suspected of the crime near the scene of the burglary, but what ultimately led investigators to Goines was a fingerprint left at the office, which they matched to his file, according to a police report.

Police caught up with Goines on May 17, and a grand jury indicted him on a felony burglary charge, records show. He is currently being held at Rikers Island on $10,000 bail pending his next court date on June 30, when he is scheduled to be arraigned, according to court records.

Goines has a rap sheet dating back more than a decade, and has spent about eight years in state prisons on convictions of burglary and possession of stolen property, records show.

A lawyer for Goines did not immediately respond to a request for comment.