NYPD Arrests Friday Night Intruder

By Yehudit Garmaise

While a Boro Park family was finishing up a peaceful Friday night seuda this past week on 44th Street and 13th Avenue, the homeowner heard an intruder walk around the house and open and close cabinet doors.

Once the father of the home heard the intruder, he started to yell, “Chaptzem, chaptzem,” and scared away the unarmed perpetrator, who had taken off his shoes so as not to awaken any residents. 

The intruder, a black man around 30 years old, ran out without his shoes, but the father’s call to his neighbors was heard and 25 men soon ran out of their homes to help.

Lipa Levy, the Shmira volunteer who lives nearby, was taking a stroll when he heard “a large group of men screaming ’Chaptzem, chaptzem,’ while they were running after a guy.”

“I broke out in a run,” said Levy, who immediately pulled out the radio that he always carries with him to ask for backup. “We had around 25 neighbors running to help. The whole block started coming out.”

No one was sure what the perpetrator was trying to steal, but Levy said, “He did not have time to get anything because he started running away as soon as the father began to scream.”

With so many men out on the street to try to catch him, the intruder only got a half a block away, when Levy and other Shmira members asked him what he was doing in the house on 44th Street.

“He said he wasn’t sure,” said Levy, who apprehended the perpetrator until the cops arrived. “He didn’t talk normally, he was very scared.”

Within minutes, the NYPD arrived and arrested the intruder.

If any residents hear intruders in their homes, Levy advised, “They should stay calm, stay relaxed, and call for help."