Promises made, promises kept.
That’s what City of Tonawanda police are saying following the speedy arrest of Anthony M. Autrino, who is accused of stealing expensive camera equipment from BJ’s Wholesale Club on Young Street over the weekend.
Following the release of surveillance video by police earlier this week to media outlets across Western New York, Autrino turned himself in at police headquarters at 3:20 p.m. Tuesday.
When Autrino was arrested, detectives from the department were already searching for the man after an anonymous caller identified him as the suspect after seeing the video through a news station broadcast.
“He walked in and he said, ‘I know the cops are looking for me, I’m here to turn myself in,’ ” Lt. Fredric Foels. “It was ironic because detectives were checking out a couple locations in Erie County for Mr. Autrino. We’re not sure if he saw himself on the news or heard the cops were looking for him.”
The 37-year-old Lancaster man showed up and admitted stealing a camera worth $700. Police also discovered Autrino snatched another more expensive camera valued at $1299 on Jan. 21 after reviewing a backlog of video.
In the more recent instance Sunday, Autrino was captured in high resolution disabling an alarm system prior to unfastening a Nikon camera on a display rack, then concealed it under his jacket and left the store. Police had surmised that Aurtrino looked to be familiar with theft-deterrent equipment used by the store.
Autrino, who lives on Harris Hill Road, was charged with fourth-degree grand larceny and petit larceny. He was arraigned in Tonawanda City Court and held on $5,000 bail.
Foels said Autrino has some criminal history, with an unrelated case pending in another Erie County jurisdiction.
He also mentioned the grand larceny charge only applied after police conducted a video feed review from the last few weeks, which showed him taking the more expensive camera.
“We were pretty confident with the video and information from the public that we were going to wrap this up pretty quickly, as promised,” Foels said.
Local News
February 2, 2012
BJ’s thief turns himself in
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