Admits burrowing into bodegas

A STATEN ISLAND man pleaded guilty Tuesday to charges that he cut holes in the roofs and walls of bodegas and grocery stores in Queens to steal lottery tickets, cigarettes and $40,000 in cash.

Hector Rodriguez, 38, was hit with two counts of third-degree burglary after he was arrested in December for the yearlong string of thefts from stores in Queens Village, Woodside, Jackson Heights, Jamaica and Corona between October 2015 and September 2016.

“He brazenly burglarized various businesses in Queens, literally breaking into the buildings by creating holes in rooftops and or in walls to gain entry,” said Queens District Attorney Richard Brown.

Brown said Rodriguez was captured on surveillance video in each of the break-ins wearing a hooded sweatshirt and sneakers, and carrying a crowbar and flashlight. Rodriguez faces up to five years in prison when he is sentenced April 11. THREE conservative firebrands with ties to President Trump will go on trial Wednesday for allegedly smearing a Libertarian Party candidate for governor as a sexual predator.

The defendants are notorious political trickster Roger Stone, bombastic Buffalo businessman Carl Paladino and political talk show host Michael Caputo.

Stone and Caputo’s names have reportedly been linked to Russian interference with the November election. Paladino, who served as co-chairman of Trump’s New York campaign, made racist remarks about President Barack Obama and Michelle Obama during the transition.

The 2010 Libertarian candidate for governor, Warren Redlich, alleged in a 2011 lawsuit in Manhattan Supreme Court that the three conspired to undermine his longshot campaign by sending an anonymous mailer designed as a “sexual predator alert” that described him as a “sick twisted pervert” who “defends sex with children.”

“The man is a crackpot, and he will not achieve his goal,” Stone said.

Calls to the three men’s attorneys were not returned.