New York woman facing charges for burglarizing homes of people attending funerals

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funeral-burglar-01 — Latonia Shelecia Stewart is accused of breaking into the homes of bereaved families. Courtesy of Westchester County DA’s Office)

A Bronx woman was indicted on Wednesday on 22 criminal charges for allegedly burglarizing homes of grieving family members while they were attending their loved ones’ funerals.

Latonia Shelecia Stewart, 26, is facing counts of burglary, grand larceny, criminal possession of stolen property, petty larceny, criminal mischief, possession of burglar’s tools and three motor vehicle violations, the New York Post reports.

Stewart is connected to six different burglaries that took place in homes located in Rye Brook, Cortlandt, Scarsdale, Irvington, Ossining, and Tarrytown between fall 2017 and spring 2018, prosecutors said.

ABC 7 New York reports that Stewart allegedly conducted the crimes by finding obituaries of the deceased online and then going through teh effort of locating where their loved ones lived. She then broke into these people’s homes while they were attending the wake or funeral service of their dead family members, the indictment says.

She reportedly would broke windows and glass door using a mallet hammer to enter thee homes where she would steal personal items like jewelry.

Police said they noticed a trend of robberies tied to people who recently had relatives obituaries published detailing funeral information, according to NBC New York.

Stewart was eventually caught on May 1, 2018, when cops found her attempting to burglarize a dead person’s home, prosecutors said. Officials say the mallet hammer was found in her car when they arrested her. The obituary of the deceased was reportedly found on Stewart’s phone. Her baby was also found in the backseat of her car along with additional stolen property.

Stewart is scheduled to return to court on Aug. 13.

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