‘WAD’ A FOOL!
Cop grabs cash in bust at deli
LET’S GO to the videotape.
An NYPD narcotics cop was stripped of his gun and shield after surveillance video captured him stealing nearly $3,000 in cash from a Brooklyn deli during a police raid, authorities said Thursday.
Two sergeants — including one who’s among the most-sued cops in the city — also lost their guns and shields and were ordered to desk duty, officials said.
The NYPD’s Internal Affairs Bureau is investigating claims that Detective Ian Cyrus stuffed $2,650 in cash into his coat pocket as the 12-year veteran vouchered evidence at the Yemen Deli and Grocery on Marcus Garvey Blvd. in Bedford-Stuyvesant. Brooklyn North Narcotics cops had just arrested two store employees for selling untaxed cigarettes, officials said.
The theft allegations are backed by the store’s surveillance system, which shows Cyrus clumsily trying to jam the wad of stacked bills into his coat pocket.
“It was crazy,” store manager Ali Abdullah, 38, told the Daily News Thursday afternoon. “He was stealing the money and putting it in his pocket.”
Confronted with the video, cops immediately suspended Cyrus without pay. Sgt. Fritz Glemaud, who supervised the raid, and Sgt. Valerie Santos, who was allegedly told about the missing money but didn’t report the complaint, were put on modified assignment, officials said.
The theft was first reported by ABC Eyewitness News.
Abdullah said the stolen cash had been set aside to pay the store’s rent. At first, he thought an employee swiped it — then he went to the videotape. “I don’t have a problem with the city, I don’t have a problem with the cops, but this guy, he took the money put it into his own pocket,” he said.
Sgt. Glemaud has been named in more than 15 lawsuits alleging a range of civil rights violations. The city has had to shell out about $500,000 in settlements.
Cops set their sights on the Brooklyn deli after receiving a tip that they were selling untaxed cigarettes there. On Friday night, investigators sent in an undercover officer who paid $9 for a pack of untaxed Newport cigarettes, officials said. Police seized and vouchered an assortment of untaxed cigarettes and $593 from the register, police sources said.
A woman who identified herself as Cyrus’ wife said the suspended detective didn’t take the money. “They could accuse any detectives . . . any 10 detectives . . . he did nothing wrong,” the woman explained. “Putting things into detectives’ pockets is standard procedure,” she said.