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Unexpected Bedbug Exterminators May Actually Be Burglars
By
Garth Johnston
Published Mar 4, 2011
Modified Mar 4, 2011
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By
Garth Johnston
Published Mar 4, 2011
Modified Mar 4, 2011
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As if the coming bedbugpocalypse wasn't worrying enough, now we have this to deal with? Police are seeking a man suspected of burglarizing at least five Brooklyn apartments. His MO? He poses as a bedbug exterminator sent by the co-op who will need a few hours to fumigate. After the apartment dwellers leave he does what any burglar would do and ransacks the place.
"I said, 'I don’t have bugs,' and he said, 'It’s not about bugs, it’s about bedbugs,' and that the co-op sent him," one victim explained. So naturally she went out for a few hours to let him do his job. When she returned she saw her "jewelry box was moved and everything in it was gone.”
"I feel a little stupid after the fact," she said later. "Hopefully we'll catch him."
Police say the suspect, who they describe as being between 28 and 35 with a stocky build and a thin moustache, has hit at least five apartments in Brooklyn with the same trick in the past two months (see the map below). The thief allegedly looks the part of an exterminator down to the canister he carries.
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bedbugs
brooklyn
burglar
burglary
crime
exterminators
Garth Johnston
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