On Tuesday afternoon in Bayside, a Long Island man was taken into custody after breaking into a house and getting cornered on its roof. John Stewart, 43, of Mastic, was arrested on Francis Lewis Blvd. around 2 p.m. in an incident that shut down the surrounding area.
According to an eyewitness, the burglar broke into a home on Francis Lewis Boulevard near 35th Avenue by climbing a ladder in the backyard at around 11:30 a.m. The house’s residents quickly ran out and Stewart soon found himself on the roof, surrounded by police.
“He was up there, he was on the phone, he was crying. Then he threw his phone down and he was up there crying. They thought he was going to jump,” Albert Miro, a nearby neighbor, said. “In the driveway, they blew up the big thing in case he jumped but he never did. An hour or two later, he came out of that front door. He had nowhere to go.”
Stewart reportedly has compiled several burglary charges from different victims, all within the confines of the 111th precinct. He did not have a weapon during the incident, according to police.