Meet Canarsie’s Public Enemy Number 1: a drug-addicted parolee who raided 11 homes before being arrested and forced to go on a block-by-block tour of the neighborhood with investigators, giving them a tally of both the homes he victimized and the sins he committed.
Police said burglary suspect Curlon Constantine, 25, will be calling a jail cell home once’s he’s indicted on 11 counts of burglary, criminal and criminal possession of stolen property. A grand jury is currently mulling over the case.
Detectives from the 69th Precinct said they nabbed the East New York resident on June 8 after linking him to a key piece of evidence he foolishly left behind while breaking into a home on East 99th Street between Avenues L and M.
During the May 24 heist, Constantine allegedly threw a rock into a rear window of the home — his usual modus operandi — but scrambled away when he realized someone was inside.
Police said Constantine preyed on Canarsie’s northeastern end two months before his ultimate capture. He raided homes on Avenue L between East 103rd and East 104th Streets, Scheneck Street between Canarsie Road and East 93rd Street, East 105th Street between Flatlands Ninth Street and Avenue N and Flatlands Seventh Street between East 105th and East 108th Streets, police alleged. He also broke into several homes in the East 90s, police reported.
Constantine freely identified each and every home he broke into after his arrest, police said.
“After he was picked out of a lineup and given his Miranda warning, he confessed to nine other burglaries besides the two we had him on,” one police source said. “When we put him in a car, he pointed out all the houses he had done as we rolled around town.”
But Constantine wasn’t boastful. Rather, he was remorseful, claiming he broke into homes to fuel his drug addiction.
“He told us he got hooked on crack,” the source said. “Whenever he needed some, he would hit a house.”
Police said that Constantine would steal everything from jewelry to video games and DVDs. He would also rip wide screen televisions off the wall — smashing two of them to pieces during one heist, according to prosecutors.
He would then sell the items on the street for quick cash.
With Constantine in custody, cops from the 69th Precinct are breathing a sigh of relief, especially since they’ve seen an 86 percent jump in burglaries, from 57 in June 2009 to 106 this year.