Two arrested in string of drive-by purse snatchings
Veronica Sarabella, 30, of Deer Park, and Alfonso Zitoli, 29, of Massapequa, were arrested Saturday night following the last of the reported crimes, outside a Shop-Rite in Plainview. Plain clothes officers from Nassau's Eight Precinct spotted a black Nissan matching one used in the robberies and followed the car into West Babylon, where Suffolk County police aided in a traffic stop.
Both suspects are charged with two counts of 2nd-degree robbery, attempted 2nd-degree robbery and three counts of 4th-degree grand larceny. Zitoli also faces three counts of 3rd-degree robbery.
Police say the recent purse-snatching spree began Jan. 18 at the Long Island Rail Road station in Massapequa, continued outside a King Kullen in Bethpage Jan. 19, a Pathmark in Seaford Jan. 20, and peaked with three incidents within an hour Friday.
In the first of those, a man stole a handbag from a shopping cart outside BJ's in Levittown while the victim was placing groceries in her car. Nine minutes later, a woman in a dark Nissan grabbed a purse from a woman walking in the Delco Plaza in Hicksville.
Sixteen minutes after that, a woman pulled a purse from a victim at Jerusalem Avenue and Old Country Road in Hicksville, causing the victim to fall to the ground.
As police stepped up patrols, searching for the suspects' Nissan, incidents were reported at 4:33 p.m. Saturday at a King Kullen in Manhasset, and at 5:23 p.m. at the Shop Rite in Plainview. In the last purse snatching, the victim injured her shoulder when her handbag was ripped away from her.
Arraignment information for Sarabella and Zitoli was not immediately available. Their arrests come days after two men were arrested in connection with an earlier string of Nassau purse-snatching incidents.
Adesola Oguntunji, 20, of Westbury, and Lucson Desir, 22, of New Cassel, have been charged with one incident and are suspected in 13 others, police said.
Posted Sunday, January 23, 2011
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