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Thief Who Stole Rare Comic Books Busted Trying to Sell to Shops, NYPD Says

By  Janon Fisher and Trevor Kapp | September 20, 2017 4:07pm 

 Kenneth Gaynor, 40, stole two rare comic books from a collector's stoop, police said. 
Kenneth Gaynor, 40, stole two rare comic books from a collector's stoop, police said. 
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Twitter/NYPD72Pct; State DOC

BROOKLYN — His web of crime was shredded by police.

An ex-con stole rare Spider-Man and X-Men comic books worth about $4,000 from a man's stoop in Windsor Terrace, but was nabbed weeks later after he tried to flip them to shops, police and prosecutors said.

Kenneth Gaynor, 40, snagged the comic books — both dating from 1963 — from a package left on a stoop on Terrace Place near Prospect Avenue on Aug. 28 just after 10 p.m., police said.  

The 35-year-old man who ordered the books online found the package open with the classics nowhere to be found. He then called police, authorities said.

Investigators later found video of Gaynor and called around to various shops across the city, police sources said.

A Manhattan store informed them Gaynor was looking to sell the classics, and police later contacted him acting as prospective buyers, sources said.

They met in Bay Ridge Monday night, where police recovered the Spider-Man comic. Gaynor gave up the shop where he flipped the X-Men book earlier in the day, admitting to police he had a bad feeling about the meeting, law-enforcement sources said.

Gaynor, who has several prior arrests, including for robbery and drug sales, was charged with criminal possession of stolen property and released without bail at his arraignment in Brooklyn Criminal Court, prosecutors said.

He’s due back in court Nov. 20.