An unidentified man forced open the door of an apartment near Metropolitan Avenue and Maple Drive in Parkchester on Tuesday, August 18, at approximately 4:45 p.m., then damaged a television inside before running off on foot, according to police. The suspect remains at large, and investigators have not said whether he took anything from the residence or whether anyone was home at the time.
The alert, first shared by NYPD Crime Stoppers, describes the intrusion as happening in the confines of the 45th Precinct, which polices a stretch of the northeastern Bronx. The precinct, headquartered at 2877 Barkley Avenue in Throggs Neck, covers six square miles of land and more than 10 miles of waterfront across neighborhoods including Pelham Bay, Country Club, Co-op City, and City Island, according to NYC.gov. The block where the break-in happened sits within the Parkchester residential development in the southeast Bronx, a dense complex of apartment buildings, quadrangles, and commercial strips that has seen its share of unwelcome intrusions this year.
🚨WANTED FOR A BURGLARY: On Tuesday, August 18, 2026, at approximately 4:45 P.M., in the vicinity of Metropolitan Avenue and Maple Drive, in the confines of the 45 Precinct in the Bronx, an unidentified male individual entered a residence by forcibly pushing open the door of an… pic.twitter.com/dPlETegMqa
— NYPD Crime Stoppers (@NYPDTips) August 27, 2026
What Investigators Say Happened
Per the Crime Stoppers alert, the man entered the residence by forcibly pushing open the apartment door, then damaged a television before fleeing the scene on foot to parts unknown. Police have not released a physical description of the suspect or said what, if anything, prompted him to target the specific apartment. That gap leaves the motive for the break-in an open question, since notices from police have not specified whether valuables were stolen or whether the resident was present during the intrusion.
If caught, the suspect would likely face Burglary in the Second Degree under New York Penal Law § 140.25, a Class C violent felony punishable by up to 15 years in state prison, since forcibly breaking into an occupied residential dwelling with intent to commit a crime carries that elevated charge under state law. Damaging the television inside would also expose him to a charge of Criminal Mischief in the Fourth Degree under Penal Law § 145.00, a Class A misdemeanor punishable by up to a year in jail, since intentionally destroying property inside a residence falls under that statute.
A Mixed Crime Picture In the 45th Precinct
The break-in lands in a precinct with a complicated recent crime trend. Reported major index crimes in the 45th Precinct rose 11.27% in 2025 compared to the year before, reaching 1,984 total incidents in a command historically seen as one of the borough's safer patrol areas, per the Bronx Times. That local uptick stands apart from broader citywide numbers: NYPD CompStat data for the week ending August 23 shows citywide burglaries fell 13.9% year-to-date, dropping from 8,228 reported incidents in 2025 to 7,085 so far in 2026.
Borough-wide, the trend has been even more pronounced. The Bronx accounted for roughly half of New York City's overall major crime reduction during the first half of 2026, driven largely by steep drops in property offenses like burglary and grand larceny, according to Vital City. The Parkchester incident is a reminder that borough-wide progress doesn't necessarily track evenly across every precinct or every block.
Cash Reward And Surveillance Push
NYPD Crime Stoppers is offering up to $3,500 for anonymous tips leading to an arrest and indictment in the case. The reward program is administered independently by the nonprofit New York City Police Foundation using private corporate and individual donations rather than public tax dollars, and since taking over management of Crime Stoppers in 1983, the foundation has distributed more than $3.4 million in rewards for tips that have helped solve over 5,600 violent crimes across the five boroughs, according to the New York City Police Foundation.
Detectives working the 45th Precinct now have more surveillance tools than in years past. In May, state officials announced a $1 million grant dedicated to the precinct to expand ARGUS street camera coverage across eastern Bronx neighborhoods, a rollout that could eventually help track suspects fleeing on foot through the area, though it remains unclear whether footage from that network or from Parkchester's own complex security cameras captured this suspect's escape.
Anyone with information is asked to call the CRIME STOPPERS Hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477), submit tips through the Crime Stoppers website, or reach out via DM on X or Facebook @NYPDTips. Spanish-speaking callers can reach 1-888-57-PISTA (74782). This is at least the fourth break-in or armed intrusion Hoodline has tracked near Metropolitan Avenue in Parkchester and the surrounding 45th Precinct this year, following an armed robbery in February, a shooting into an apartment door days later, and a Throggs Neck shooting earlier this month.
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