GUILDERLAND — Police arrested five Albany teenagers, believed to be responsible for at least 40 burglaries, after a Guilderland woman came home this week and saw four of the five young men leaving her house.

Inspector Mark DeFrancesco, of the Albany County Sheriff’s Department, told The Enterprise that, last Thursday, a woman called Guilderland Police after she saw four men leaving her house on Kings Road. She wrote down their license plate number, DeFrancesco said, and officers put out an all-points bulletin on the car.

Within a short period of time, DeFrancesco saw the car in Albany, across from the county courthouse, he said. He found and arrested two of the suspects then, he said.

Later that night, a third suspect was arrested in Troy, police say, and a fourth was arrested this weekend.

Tyrone Torak, 19, and Patrick Rucker, 19, both of 93 Columbia St.; Paul Artis, 17, of 368 Elk St.; and Morvin Mahipat, 18, of 392 Orange St., were all charged with second-degree burglary and grand larceny, both felonies.

Also this week, Guilderland Police arrested a fifth person who, DeFrancesco said, was linked to the four. That person, whose name was not available by press time, could only be tied to one burglary in Guilderland, DeFrancesco said.

Police found that, since 2004, the men were responsible for at least 40 burglaries in Albany, Rensselaer, and Schenectady counties. They stole $12,000 in property, including computers, computer equipment, linen, video games, jewelry, and food, police say.

Both Torak and Mahipat were arrested by Guilderland Police earlier this year.

Torak was arrested on April 12, at the Guilderland Police Station, for fourth-degree criminal possession of stolen property, a felony. Guilderland Police said then that, at Crossgates Mall, Torak used a credit card that was reported stolen from the Guilderland YMCA earlier that day.

Mahipat was arrested on Oct. 6, at Crossgates Mall, for three counts of petit larceny, all misdemeanors. Guilderland Police said that, while employed at Filene’s, Mahipat stole from a cash register. He stole $300 on Sept. 30, $120 on Oct. 2, and $300 on Oct. 6, the arrest report said. He gave the store’s security a written statement admitting to the larceny, the report said.

Two days before being arrested by the sheriff’s department, Torak, Rucker, Artis, and Mahipat broke into two homes in Guilderland, DeFrancesco said.

Police in Guilderland, Schodack, North Greenbush, and East Greenbush assisted in the investigation.

The men would drive around, looking for houses that appeared empty, DeFrancesco said. The day they were arrested, he said, they tried to break into a home in East Greenbush. The resident was home, however, and, after the men fled, described their car to police.

They broke into homes by smashing doors and using screwdrivers and other tools to break locks, DeFrancesco said.

The men sold most of the items they stole, DeFrancesco said. Police traced some of the property to pawn shops and found other stolen items in the group’s car, he said.
"We were happy to get some of the property back," DeFrancesco said. He described the satisfaction of returning a checkbook to a man who didn’t realize it was stolen.
"We were relieved it was the same group of people doing the burglaries," DeFrancesco said. "We got a cap on it."