Burglaries have spiked in Staten Island so far this year, and police attribute it partly to serial burglars responsible for as many as a dozen cases.
The Staten Island Advance reports that the borough had 272 burglaries this year through May 29, up nearly 30 percent over last year.
"It's been a bad stretch," Assistant Chief Stephen Paragallo, the NYPD borough commander, told the paper.
Residential burglaries are also up.
Paragallo told the paper that the NYPD has identified 10 burglary patterns this year, up from four in 2010.