New York Daily News

Suicidal burglar tries to burn self in hotel vent: cops

- BY THOMAS TRACY

AN UNHINGED man got caught in an air duct at a Midtown hotel while trying to set himself on fire during a bizarre burglary and suicide attempt early Wednesday, police said.

Hotel staff found a barefoot Juan Estella, 35, wearing only long underwear, stuck inside the ductwork on the seventh floor of the Renaissanc­e New York Midtown Hotel on W. 35th St. near Seventh Ave. about 5:30 a.m.

Estella sneaked into the hotel, but was spotted wandering around the sixth-floor lobby, cops said. When security guards tried to grab him, he gave them the slip and ran up to the seventh floor.

A security feed tracked Estella into a closed-off area there — but then he disappeare­d, cops said.

A short time later, workers smelled burning rubber coming out of the vents near the hotel’s seventh-floor pantry.

Estella, who managed to get stuck inside the vent, used a small cigar lighter to set one of his shoes on fire, cops said. He had hoped that the fire would set off the smoke detectors.

As first responders extracted the soot-covered man from the shaft, Estella told them he crawled inside the shaft to commit suicide.

“He said he was attempting to light himself on fire,” a police source said.

Cops charged Estella, who lives near Times Square, with burglary, arson and criminal trespass.

His arraignmen­t was pending as medics took him to Bellevue Hospital for a psychologi­cal evaluation.

Estella has been arrested for burglary before, police sources said.

A call to the Renaissanc­e New York Midtown Hotel for comment was not returned.

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