An alleged burglar from Brooklyn who targeted homes in six Queens neighborhoods was collared by cops out of the 112th Precinct in Forest Hills after they chased him down on the night of Monday, Feb. 3.
Zengguo Chen, 35, of 58th Street in the Borough Park section, was arraigned in Queens Criminal Court on Thursday night on three different criminal complaints together charging him with burglary, grand larceny, assault, and other related crimes, Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz announced.
“As alleged in the complaints, this defendant went on a four-month burglary spree and targeted houses across Queens County,” Katz said Friday.
According to the charges, on Oct. 1, 2024, between 2:30 p.m. and 1 a.m. the following day, Chen entered a home on 177th Street in Fresh Meadows. When the homeowner returned, she noticed a bedroom window and back door were unlocked and that several pieces of jewelry with more than $3,000 were missing. Also gone were the keys to her car and a safety deposit box.
Three days later, Chen allegedly struck again between 6 p.m. and 9:30 p.m. at a home on 212th Street in Hollis Hills by slipping in through a side window. When the homeowner returned, he noticed jewelry, designer Louis Vuitton and Yves Saint Laurent handbags, and a gold bar, worth a total value of approximately $3,000, were missing.
Chen took nearly a month off before targeting a home in Whitestone on the night of Saturday, Nov. 16. Between 6:30 p.m. and 7 p.m., Chen entered a home on 149th Street through a first-floor bathroom window and set off a motion sensor alarm. When the homeowner returned from vacation, he noticed a broken lock on the window. On Dec. 4, at around 7:30 p.m., Chen allegedly broke into a home on 213th Street in Bayside through a first-floor window. The homeowner received a notification on his cell phone that there was an intruder attempting to enter his property. The homeowner watched live video surveillance on his cell phone of Chen holding a small bag, breaking in through a window on the first floor of the residence, and then exiting through a rear door approximately four minutes later, according to the criminal complaint.
On Jan. 12, between approximately 9:30 a.m. and 5:45 p.m., Chen entered a home on Kent Street in Jamaica Estates and climbed down from a second-story window. That same day, between 6:15 p.m. and 7:15 p.m., Chen removed a window screen from a home on Midland Parkway in Jamaica Estates in an attempt to break in before he fled the scene.
On the night of Feb. 8, Chen entered the gated front and backyard of a home on Olive Street in Forest Hills at around 8:40 p.m. A short while later, Chen entered the backyard of a home two blocks south on Harrow Street at around 9 p.m. and carried a piece of lawn furniture to the side yard, where he placed it under a bathroom window. The homeowner was inside the house, noticed the previously closed window was open, and called 911. A few minutes later, at approximately 9:15 p.m., an NYPD officer and sergeant spotted Chen walking along a sidewalk on nearby Fleet Street and attempted to stop him. Chen made a run for it, after dropping a black bag containing his tools, but the cops caught up to him, at which point Chen began flailing his arms and legs and resisted arrest. The officers sustained injuries during the chase and subsequent struggle and were taken to a nearby hospital for treatment. Police recovered the black bag belonging to Chen that included a flashlight, rope, chisel, wrench, crowbar, screwdriver, and gloves.
“Thanks to the NYPD, this defendant was apprehended on Tuesday night as he attempted to burglarize yet another home in Forest Hills,” Katz said. This investigation is very much ongoing, and additional charges are likely.”
In addition to burglary, grand larceny, and assault, Chen was also criminally charged with criminal mischief, obstructing governmental administration, criminal trespass, and possession of burglary tools.
“On behalf of the entire District Attorney’s office, I send my best wishes to the officers who are recuperating from injuries suffered during the arrest,” Katz said.
Queens Criminal Court Judge Anthony Battisti remanded Chen into custody without bail and ordered him to return to court on Feb. 28. If convicted, Chen faces up to 15 years in prison on each of seven counts of second-degree burglary.
