West End Man Charged in Neighborhood Burglaries

Joseph Moss, 40, of Long Beach was arrested and charged with burglaries in the West End that were part of a broader spree in September. 

Long Beach police arrested Moss, an Indiana Avenue resident, in Brooklyn on Wednesday evening and charged him burglarizing three of five homes — on Maryland, Wyoming and Pennsylvania Avenues and Alabama and Kentucky Streets — that they said fit a particular pattern from Sept. 14 to 25.

Police said that Moss would break into homes, usually through a rear or side first-floor window, and would take only jewelry and cash from each home. They believe Moss is responsible for burglarized homes on Sept. 15, 21 and 22.

"He left a lot of DNA evidence at the scene," said Long Beach Police Department Deputy Inspector Bruce Meyer, who declined to specify the evidence. "The lab actually got a positive match back indicating that it was Mr. Moss's DNA."

Meyer said that Moss, who has an extensive criminal record and has served prison time for burglary, became a person of interest to police early in the investigation, which took the LBPD's street crimes unit throughout Nassau County, Queens, Brooklyn and Pennsylvania. With the assistance of the New York City Police Department, police located Moss on Fort Hamilton Parkway and 58th Street in Brooklyn at about 6:40 p.m. on Oct. 27.  

"We suspected he may have known that he was a person of interest because we distributed flyers throughout the West End," Det. Lieutenant James Canner said about the investigation into the September burglary spree that had West End residents on edge. 

Canner said that Moss fled first to Brooklyn and later to Pennsylvania, but returned to Brooklyn several times. "We continued to surveillance him and keep tabs on him as the case developed," he noted.   

The results of the DNA test came back from a lab on Oct. 22, and earlier this week they was presented to a First District Court judge,  who issued an arrest warrant for Moss.

"We were very methodical in what we did," Meyer said. "We did it step by step the right way, and to make sure we had the right person."

Canner said police are still investigating two other West End burglaries in September, as well as others that stretch back six months. "There are numerous other burglaries that we're looking at, and he's a person of interest in all of them," Canner said about Moss.

Moss was arraigned on three counts of burglary at Long Beach City Court on Thursday and is being held without bail at the Nassau County Correctional Facility in East Meadow.

Jeff Groder, Moss's attorney, declined to comment on the case. "I was just assigned to the case today and haven't had a meaningful conversation with him," he said.