‘Serial burglar’ charged with V.S. incident

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A Brooklyn man was arrested on June 19 and charged with nine counts of burglary in connection with nine commercial burglaries that happened in Nassau County over the last six months, including the May 11 burglary of Shoe Repair in Valley Stream.

Joseph Borelli, 42, was charged with conducting “smash-and-grab” burglaries in Great Neck, Greenvale, East Norwich, New Cassel, Massapequa, Valley Stream, Syosset and Plainview. Two co-defendants, Rotem Balila, 25, and Edan Balila, 27, both of Great Neck, were arrested and charged with accompanying Borelli on one burglary each, on separate dates. Neither was charged with the Valley Stream incident.

The owner of Shoe Repair arrived at the West Merrick Road shop on the morning of May 11 to find the glass of its front door and a front window smashed. He reported that jewelry and watches were missing.

Borelli was accused of stealing about $7,000 worth of jewelry from the store. He was charged with taking varied amounts from the other businesses, totaling more than $200,000 in jewelry and cash.

Nassau County police identified a burglary pattern and worked with the NCPD DA Squad and the NCPD Organized Crime and Rackets Bureau to track and arrest Borelli and his co-defendants, using video surveillance and court-authorized GPS tracking, according to the district attorney’s office.

Borelli and his co-defendants are being investigated for at least seven other burglaries that followed similar patterns in Nassau County, Suffolk County and Queens over the same time period.

Borelli was charged with nine counts of third-degree burglary and nine counts of third-degree criminal mischief. He faces a maximum sentence of three and a half to seven years in prison on each top count if convicted. His bail was set at $450,000 cash or bond. He is due back in court on July 2.