FLATIRON — A burglar broke into multiple apartments in a West 25th Street building last month and used a victim’s credit cards to go shopping before police nabbed him with methamphetamines when he returned to the scene of one of his crimes, according to the NYPD.
On May 21, May 22, and May 28 Alan Panzano, 30, broke into 55 W. 26th St. between Sixth Avenue and Broadway, according to police reports.
In the first break-in, Panzano snuck into an apartment sometime before 12:30 p.m. and stole a man’s wallet, which contained a credit card, a debit card, a $60 gift card and $60 in cash, police said.
Sometime after that, he used the victim’s card at Cowboy Wholesale Market on West 28th Street to buy a $140 cell phone, at Penn Station to buy a New Jersey Transit ticket, and at a Linden, NJ Walmart, where he spent $197, according to a criminal complaint.
At 11 a.m. the next day, the resident of a second apartment reported that someone had broken into her home and stolen a designer purse worth $1,800, which had four credit cards in it, police said.
A week later, on May 28, Panzano reappeared at 55 W. 26th St., where police found him loitering in a stairwell at about 6 a.m., according to a criminal complaint.
When an officer questioned Panzano, he said he was in the building visiting his friend “Shawn White” in apartment 22C, but when police checked with the super, it turned out there was neither a Shawn White or an apartment 22C in the building, according to the complaint.
When police searched Panzano they found him carrying lock cylinders, screwdrivers, latex gloves, wires with hooks at the ends, drill bits, a WD-40 spray can, and a set of 45 different keys, according to the complaint.
Police could not say what the keys were for, but said they were considered burglar's tools.
Officers also found an envelope with nearly an ounce of methamphetamine, along with the first victim’s gift card, police said.
When officers showed Panzano security footage of him inside the West 26th Street building he admitted to having broke into it on three separate occasions on May 21, 22, and 28, as well as burglaries in other unspecified buildings, according to the criminal complaint.
Prosecutors charged Panzano with two counts of burglary, drug possession, six counts of grand larceny, three counts of identity theft, and individual counts of trespassing, possession of burglary tools, and possession of stolen property, according to a spokeswoman for the Manhattan District Attorney.
A judge released Panzano on May 31 after he posted $10,000 bail, and he is due back in court on July 28, according to a spokeswoman.
A lawyer for Panzano did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
