Alleged UWS Package Thief Wishes He Hadn’t Opened This Box

Lieutenant Tony Lavino (right) and Officer Nicholas Ramsammy with the box they say was opened by a thief. Via 20th precinct.

A man who police say had repeatedly stolen packages from one Upper West Side building got an unwelcome surprise this past weekend, when cops caught him in the act, according to the 20th precinct.

Two officers from the 20th precinct laid a kind of trap for the burglar, Deputy Inspector Timothy Malin said in a post on the precinct’s Facebook page.

“Between January 30th and February 6th, a burglar struck at 101 West 85th Street three times during the overnight hours. Each time, he manipulated the building’s front door lock, entered the lobby, and went straight to the mail room where packages were left for residents. He stole multiple packages, including one that contained a laptop computer.

The building has excellent security cameras, and the video showed that the perpetrator wore the same distinctive outfit every time. So Lieutenant Tony Lavino, who coordinates our special operations, set a trap for our burglar with the help of Officer Nicholas Ramsammy, a member of our plainclothes Anti-Crime Team.

In the wee hours of the morning on Saturday, they left a “bait package” conspicuously placed inside of the building’s lobby and then surveilled the vestibule while remaining hidden. Sure enough, the perpetrator, wearing the same clothes as before, and later identified as Carlos Maisonet, broke into the building and stole our bait package. As he left the building, our officers apprehended him immediately and without incident. Oh, and if you’re asking yourself “What was in the bait package?” Look closely at the below photo… Tony and Nick – who have good senses of humor – decided to fill the box with a stack of law enforcement magazines that were sitting inside of our stationhouse.

As you can imagine, our perpetrator was not thrilled when he learned that the package he got caught committing a burglary to steal contained only policing periodicals. Mr. Maisonet is 52 years old, has been arrested over 30 times (six of them for burglary), and has an active parole warrant. He has been charged with four counts of burglary from his recent exploits on the Upper West Side and is being held on $30K bail. We doubt the publishers of The Blue Magazine had this in mind when they sent these magazines to our precinct… but Lt. Lavino, Officer Ramsammy, and the rest of us would like to thank them for the assist in taking this criminal off the street!”