County cops arrest ‘serial burglar’ in Wantagh

Nassau County Police Department officials nabbed serial burglars in Wantagh eariler this summer, they said. 

It was almost 5 a.m. on July 9 when a Wantagh resident was walking down Bellaire Street. He reportedly noticed a man running frantically from a backyard. 

Less than an hour later, detectives from the 2nd Precinct were called to the area and pulled over a “suspicious” Suffolk County man; Charles Stewart, 30, was inside a 1999 Ford Minivan, with Diana Maben, 43, at the wheel.

While the officers were attempting to question the two people, the man ran from the car. And so the chase began.

A 7th Precinct officer who was also at the scene ran after Stewart, officials said, but was injured in the process, falling onto his shoulder. The officer had pain and cuts, but succeeded in catching Stewart. A loaded handgun was later found in the minivan.

Stewart and Maben, both of Huntington, were arrested and charged in connection eight burglaries across Long Island communities. Over a span of two years, police said Stewart took money, jewelry, cars and even two hover boards from homes in Syosset and Plainview before they were cuffed.

The thefts first started just hours after Christmas 2014, police said, when Stewart reportedly slipped through an open garage door into a house on Pine Drive in Woodbury at 1 a.m. Then, detectives contend, he stole a Coach handbag and two sets of decorative Galaxy lights.

Nearly a year-and-a-half later, Stewart allegedly struck again, using a garage door opener lifted from a victim’s unlocked car to slip into a house on Southern Parkway in Plainview at 4:30 a.m. Police said he was unable to find any valuable property and left the home.

Half an hour later, Stewart resurfaced half of a mile away at a house on Stauber Drive, officials explained, again reportedly entering through an open garage door. They said he got away with a medium-sized safe and hover board.

Stewart again used garage door openers swiped from unlocked cars on May 4 and 9. Police said he hit a Plainview home on Audrey Avenue first, but the residents woke up and chased him off before he could take anything. Then, they said he went to at a Syosset home on Market Drive, where he escaped with a cash-filled wallet and another hover board.

By May 23, police said Stewart tried something new: slipping through a sliding glass door at a Massapequa home on Pompano Lane around midnight. There, detectives said he stole a pocketbook, a set of car keys and the 2010 Toyota Corolla from the driveway. Suffolk County Police found the car in Amityville on June 6. 

A month later, detectives said Stewart climbed through the window of a house on Beech Street, in Wantagh, while the residents were sleeping. They said he took jewelry, a wallet, car keys and a 2017 Hyundai from the local folks; the car was recovered on July 4 in Massapequa.

Stewart was charged with seven counts of burglary; two counts of grand larceny; two counts of criminal possession counts of a weapon; and one count of assault with intent to harm police. His apparent accomplice was booked on one gun charge, officials noted.

Both defendants were arraigned on Sunday, July 10 at First District Court, Hempstead.