Crimes Nearby: Leaving Scene of Fatal Accident; 'Heroin Highway'

Commack

Suffolk County police have confirmed that six Commack homes have been burglarized since New Year's Eve. 

The slew of home invasions has many area residents speaking out about what they are calling a rash of recent burglaries in the area. Three of the reported burglaries occurred on Jan. 6, and two more on Jan. 10, according to police.

Northport

A Northport man was arrested Saturday and charged in the hit and run accident that killed a Massapequa Park construction worker.

 arrested John Pappias and charged him with leaving the scene of a fatal motor vehicle crash. On Oct. 28, and a coworker were on Route 25A in Fort Salonga loading a milling machine onto a trailer on the side of the roadway when Schultz was struck by a vehicle at 1:35 a.m. They were working the overnight shift for Intercounty Paving in Hicksville.

Schultz, 49, was pronounced dead at the scene by the Office of the Suffolk County Medical Examiner. The coworker was uninjured.

Smithtown

Queens District Attorney Richard Brown said 96 heroin users, including 41 from Smithtown, were arrested in an investigation called “operation heroin highway”, according to a report on Newsday.

Twenty of the users involved were from Kings Park, 14 from Smithtown and seven were from Nesconset.

According to the report, drug purchases were made in city restaurants or in areas off highways such as the Long Island Expressway. The buyers in the drug deal were typically 20 to 25 years old.

Insp. Michael Bryan of the NYPD is quoted in the article and characterized the users as people coming from "good families seemingly having it all."

Seaford

Three Seaford brothers were arrested Thursday and charged with being part of a seven-member identify theft ring that “hijacked” more than 180 people’s store credit accounts to obtain in excess of $1 million in merchandise, gift cards and store credits.

The arrested Seaford brothers, Mahmoud Abdul Hussein, 27, Ali Adbul Hussein, 33, and Fadal Abdul Hussein, 22, allegedly manufactured fake driver’s licenses out of their storefront smoke shops in Manhattan's Greenwich Village that were secured by Phillip Smith of the Bronx, according to authorities. The identity theft ring busted Thursday was organized by Smith around 2008 when he allegedly obtained stolen identities, including the names and Social Security numbers of account holders at large retail chains like Home Depot, Sears, Kmart, and Kohl’s, according to authorities.

The Hussein brothers were each charged with conspiracy to produce fake driver’s licenses, which carries a maximum sentence of 15 years in prison.

Farmingdale

On Jan. 12, police arrested a Wyandanch man in connection with a South Farmingdale liquor store robbery in September. According to eighth squad detectives, Terrell A. Russell, 34, entered  on Main Street through the roof at around 4:30 a.m. on Sept. 13. Police said that once inside the defendant removed an undetermined amount of U.S. currency, New York Lottery tickets and a laptop computer. The defendant was identified through physical evidence left behind at the scene, police said, and was arrested by eighth squad detectives at noon on Jan. 12. Russell is charged with one count of burglary in the third degree.

Plainview

An elderly Plainview resident returning home from shopping was accosted by a man with a gun who ordered the victim into his home and proceeded to ransack the residence.

The attacker, who pulled a handgun, took money, credit cards, a cell phone and jewelry from the man and his wife, who was home at the time, Nassau County Police said last week.

The robbery Wednesday. The suspect ordered the victim into a room where his 77-year-old wife was watching TV. After taking the money and credit cards, the assailant proceeded to the second floor, where he ransacked the bedrooms and took additional jewelry, police said.

As this happened, the victims managed to call police and activate an audible alarm. The subject fled on foot in an unknown direction.

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A young Plainview woman encountered a burglar in her home Wednesday and, undetected on the stairs, slipped into a closet and called police.

The 18-year-old was in her bedroom about 5:45 p.m. Wednesday when she heard noises coming from the first floor of her Eton Place home, said early Thursday.

She started down the stairs and spotted a strange man standing in her home. The burglar apparently didn't see the victim, who fled undetected into a second-floor closet, detectives said. From inside the closet, the woman used a cell phone to contact police.

As she hid, the victim heard the burglar moving through the house. After a while, the intruder fled out the back door of the home in an unknown direction, police said.