By Jeff Lipton
Two administrators sat waiting in a car outside while two others waited inside the building operated by Priority One, a post-high-school yeshiva at 26 Columbia Ave. When the burglar showed up at about 1:30 a.m., school officials were waiting for him, authorities said.
When the suspect saw the men waiting for him inside, he ran away, hopping over three fences to make his escape, officials said.
But the encounter was enough for detectives to help positively identify the suspect, Gregorios Katechis, 20, of Broadway in Lawrence, as the person who has allegedly been breaking into the yeshiva, investigators said.
Detectives arrested Katechis at his basement apartment at 8 a.m. on Thursday, Nov. 22 and charged him with five counts of burglary in the third degree, they said.
This guy is not John Dillinger, but you can't go breaking into a building that doesn't belong to you, said Det. Frank Albarella of the Fourth Squad.
Katechis was also arrested in Oct. 2000 by Fourth Squad Det. John McGee for allegedly breaking into Priority One, also known as Yeshiva Zichron Aryeh, a yeshiva for boys who want to continue their Jewish studies after high school. Most of the students who attend Priority One go to the yeshiva during the day to continue their Jewish studies and attend college
at night, Priority One officials said.
The school has been operating for about five years.
For the Oct. 2000 incident, his third-degree burglary charge was reduced to a petit larceny charge and he received probation and no jail time, officials said. So while investigating the latest burglary spree at the yeshiva, Katechis' name came up as a prime suspect, officials said. But they needed enough proof to close in on the arrest, Albarella said.
School officials said the suspect is not a student but has been seen hanging around the school with other students who attend the yeshiva. He was never a student here, said one yeshiva official. But he was friendly with people over here. He might have been hanging out here.
Detectives said the suspect was quite familiar with the layout of the building and knew where everything was. He allegedly committed two burglaries last month and three this month. During the initial break-in, $100 was stolen from an office drawer on Oct. 1. During the other burglaries, he allegedly grabbed more cash, as well as a computer, food and personal items belonging to students, which were left in the classrooms, police said.
The last break-in occurred on Thanksgiving when the suspect entered the building, police said.
They were worried about these break-ins, Albarella said of the administrators of the yeshiva. So the building manager and three other people associated with the school staked the school out and they saw him coming out of the school.
When he [Katechis] realized someone was in the building, he ran out. He knew they were watching him, the detective added.
Police said they gave chase, but the suspect managed to escape by jumping over several neighborhood fences.
Albarella said at the same time, even before the stakeout, police were about to arrest Katechis for one of the four prior break-ins because they felt they had enough evidence against him to make the arrest.
He would usually grab a small amount of money and one time he took a computer from an office and food, Albarella said.
The suspect either forced open a rear door or pried open a basement window and once he slipped through an unlocked window to enter the premises. All of the break-ins were committed between 1 a.m. and 2 a.m., police said.
I'm sure everyone was frustrated, Albarella said of the burglary spree at the yeshiva. I was frustrated, all of us were. We knew who it was but we couldn't prove it until then...This was the only building that he burglarized as far as we know.
When we arrived to arrest him, he was pretty surprised, but he knew right away why we were there, Albarella said.
Police said the suspect allegedly committed the burglaries because he had not worked in about a year and he needed to live. His father lives in Florida and he does not know where his mother is living, detectives said.
Priority One school officials did not want to comment on the arrest or the burglaries.
Katechis was arraigned on the burglary charges in First District Court in Hempstead following his arrest, officials said.
