Suspect Arrested in Burglary at Skverer Yeshiva

By Reuvain Borchardt

BROOKLYN — One of three suspects has been arrested for burglarizing thousands of dollars from the Skverer Yeshiva in Boro Park over Chanukah.

When staff entered the yeshiva building at 45th Street and 14th Avenue on the morning of Friday, Dec. 15 (the eighth day of Chanukah), they saw that $5,000 cash was missing, as well as a camera; three charity boxes containing an unknown amount of currency; and small aron kodesh that did not contain any sifrei Torah. A glass partition in the building was also smashed.

The incident, involving three burglars, was captured on the yeshiva’s surveillance cameras.

The Shomrim Intelligence team, which reviews camera footage to track suspects, tracked the route of the suspects’ vehicle, a red Camry, for several blocks. The Camry then passed a Shomrim high-definition surveillance camera, which picked up the license plate.

The plate did not match the car, so Shomrim knew it was fake or stolen, and urged detectives to proceed quickly before the plate was switched again.

Before they could act, over the weekend, police not involved with this case pulled over the car because they ran the plate and discovered it was fake or stolen, and arrested the two men inside. As it turned out, these two weren’t involved in the burglary. But police then ran the VIN number of the car — and the owner was Kristian Navarro Racero, one of the alleged burglars.

Racero was arraigned Thursday on charges including third-degree burglary, grand larceny, possession of burglar’s tools, criminal mischief, criminal possession of stolen property, and trespass.

Bail was set at $20,000 cash/$50,000 bond.

Two other suspects remain at large.