Could a reprise of one of the greatest Staten Island crime stories (unrelated to the mob) ever be happening right now? The police are investigating a series of burglaries at homes in posh areas, and the Staten Island Advance's headline says it all: "Shades of the Staten Island Ninja: Cops group 6 jobs since July in house-burglary pattern."
This time, there are no stories of homeowners seeing a burglar in a ninja-like outfit or stabbing the ninja (with the ninja getting away because, well, he's a ninja) or yelling "The Ninja is here! The Ninja is here!" And many of the nearly two dozen burglaries occurred in homes where the doors and windows were left unlocked. This time, the Advance reports, "In most cases, the thief or thieves disabled alarm systems before making their way to the loot... The targets include houses on Copperflag Lane in Todt Hill, St. James Place and Romer Road in Dongan Hills, Allendale Road in Grasmere, and Lyman Place and Douglas Road in Emerson Hill, sources said."
The original 2007-2008 "Ninja" burglaries were supposedly committed by a group of Albanian nationals, but "Investigators also suspected, but could not prove, that a handful of the 'Ninja' burglaries were committed by another person — a career burglar who was caught stealing a parcel off a Todt Hill doorstep last year, a source close to the case told the Advance. A third, as-yet unidentified criminal hit a few of the houses in that pattern, and investigators believed he might have been responsible for a second set of burglaries — 18 in total — in 2008 and 2009."
