Multiple break-ins reported at stores

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Two businesses had their glass front doors broken and items stolen from inside last week, in the latest smash-and-grab crimes that fit a pattern of at least three other incidents in Valley Stream’s business district in recent weeks.

A chunk of concrete was thrown through the door of Quickbite Deli, at 137 S. Franklin St., across from the Valley Stream post office in the early morning hours of Aug. 20. The door of 103 Rainbow Nail Inc., at 236 Rockaway Ave., was broken that same morning, though it didn’t shatter.

Diane Huang, an employee at the nail salon, said she arrived at work on Thursday morning and found the door broken.

The incidents were similar to a burglary at Panaché & Dino’s Unisex Hair Salon, at 221 Rockaway Ave., that happened on Aug. 13 at 4 a.m., according to owner Bari Fici. He said that Joey Carlino, owner of T & F Pork Store, across the street from his shop, found his cash register in the garbage behind the pork store. It was broken and cash was missing.

Jovanny Quiroz, manager of Papo Deli, at 164 Rockaway Ave., confirmed that his store had been hit on July 8 at around 4:48 a.m. A piece of a cinderblock was thrown through the front door, he said, and a man could be clearly seen on the deli’s security footage.

“He just casually went inside,” Quiroz said. He watched the perpetrator walk around the store grabbing “random items” like cigarettes, condoms and a case of cheap watches.

Quiroz described the man as white or light-skinned, in his late 40s or early 50s, short, balding and wearing glasses. He also seemed to walk with a limp.

“I would recognize him from a block away,” Quiroz said. He said he turned his security footage over to police but hasn’t heard from them since.

A neighboring business, Angel Nails, was robbed on the same night as the Papo Deli, according to Quiroz, but an employee who answered the phone at the store on Monday did not speak English.

“They had him on a whole bunch of different cameras,” Quiroz said. “I don’t get how they don’t get him.”

Fici said that police found fingerprints and blood on his cash register, and Quiroz said that fingerprints were also taken from his store.

Nassau County police said that the burglaries are being classified as a pattern and that an investigation is ongoing. They did not say whether there were any more crimes reported that fit the pattern.