Bleach Bandits Arrested After 62 Heists

One late night in September, someone broke into Xpress Pizzeria on Church Ave near E 7th Street and took off with cash from the ATM and register--and the shop's jukebox. Now the thieves responsible for this, and a few others burglaries along Church Ave, have been caught--after leaving a trail of bleach modeled after the plot of a movie at 62 locations in Brooklyn and Queens.

Police say a group of five men began their string of “splash and dash” thefts in August 2010, in which the suspects in some instances poured bleach over ATM machines and cash drawers in the hopes of erasing any DNA evidence. The suspects admitted to having been inspired by the Ben Affleck movie “The Town,” in which the protagonists used bleach to cover their tracks.

The real-life suspects cut power at burglary sites and used miners’ headlamps to see their way in the dark. They stole a total of $217,000 in cash from ATMs and cash drawers, in addition to laptops, lotto tickets, and, if you can believe it, two jukeboxes.

Amaurys Hernandez, Andy Lopez, Roy Gonzalez, and Miguel Colon were arrested on burglary charges, and the fifth and last suspect in the pattern has been identified and is currently incarcerated on Riker's Island on an unrelated case involving criminal possession of a weapon.

The other burglaries in the 66th Precinct were:

Incident #24: Monday, December 20, 2010 at 8pm. The bodega at 737 Church Ave was broken into through the back door, and the suspect removed an undetermined amount of cash from the ATM machine, as well as some calling cards.

Incident #25: Tuesday, December 21, 2010 at 12:30am. At 403 Restaurant, the Chinese/Mexican place on Church at E 4th, the suspect entered through the rear door and removed a laptop and and undermined amount of cash.

Incident #58: Monday, September 26 at 5am. At the Gran Prestigio bar, on Church between Ocean and E 7th, the suspect again entered through the rear door and stole cash from the ATM machine, the register, and because it seemed to work out hours before at Xpress, they took another jukebox!