A person walked into an open business at 703 Allerton Avenue in the Bronx on Sept. 29, slipped past the public area into a restricted section, grabbed a cell phone, and bolted out the door on foot. Ten calendar days later, that person still hasn't been identified, and NYPD Crime Stoppers is now publicly appealing for help tracking them down.
According to NYPD Crime Stoppers
, the incident happened at approximately 10:30 a.m. that Tuesday. The unidentified individual entered the open commercial establishment, made their way into a restricted area, removed the phone, and then fled to parts unknown — all without anyone apparently stopping them in the moment. The address sits in the 10467 ZIP code, per property records from
PropertyShark
.
NYPD Crime Stoppers posted the public appeal on Oct. 9, roughly ten days after the incident occurred, asking anyone with information to come forward. The agency, which operates under the handle @NYPDTips, is offering a reward of up to $3,500 for information that leads to an arrest and indictment, according to the department's Crime Stoppers program description. Tips can be submitted through the 1-800-577-TIPS hotline, where calls are confidential, or by direct message to @NYPDTips.
No Description, No Business Name Released
The appeal does not include a description of the suspect, nor does it name the business that was targeted or specify what kind of cell phone was taken. Those details have not been made public as of this writing, and neither has any information about the precinct handling the investigation or whether anyone has been arrested.
A 2023 case reported by 1010 WINS involved a suspect sought after stealing $1,800 from a Bronx business. Another appeal covered previously by Hoodline involved a burglary at a Jerome Avenue storefront that had also been the site of a September 2025 armed robbery and an earlier June 2023 robbery. There is no evidence connecting any of those incidents to the Allerton Avenue case.
Burglaries Down Citywide, But Still Above Pre-Pandemic Levels
The Allerton Avenue appeal lands amid a broader downward trend in burglary citywide. Burglaries fell 14% compared with 2025 figures, and residential burglaries dropped by 18%, according to NBC New York. The outlet also reported that burglaries in public housing fell 15%, and that both Brooklyn and Queens recorded their lowest burglary totals ever.
A separate midyear analysis from Vital City found that citywide burglaries dropped 15.2% in the first half of 2026 compared with the same period a year earlier, though the figure remained 8.6% above 2019 levels. In the Bronx specifically, burglaries fell by 160 incidents, or 11%. A transcript from the NYC Mayor's Office separately described burglaries as down nearly 14% year to date citywide, with declines reported in all five boroughs.
Other recent appeals suggest the scale of Bronx and Brooklyn commercial burglaries can vary widely. Police in Brooklyn sought suspects connected to 19 separate commercial burglary incidents between Aug. 3 and Sept. 10, reported by News 12 Long Island, in which two individuals allegedly broke windows to get inside businesses, grabbed money and property, and ran off without injuring anyone. In the Bronx, a separate case Hoodline previously reported involved burglars prying open a front door at 3:30 a.m. and making off with a safe containing $85,000 in cash.
For now, the Allerton Avenue case remains open, with investigators relying on the public for leads. Anyone with information is urged to contact NYPD Crime Stoppers through the 1-800-577-TIPS hotline or by direct message to @NYPDTips.
