Police Blotter

Volume 1, Number 35 | The Weekly Newspaper of Chelsea | May 18 - 24, 2007

Police Blotter

Penthouse plunderers
A man and a woman who came to New York City from Georgia in January and were living in the Chelsea Hotel were arrested Aug. 26 on W. 19th St. next to a building where police say they had previously burglarized a penthouse apartment.

Robert Nestingen, 34, and Melissa Pavozehr, 35, are facing burglary and possession of stolen property charges in connection with the burglaries of at least four penthouse apartments in Chelsea and the Upper West Side, according to police and the office of Manhattan District Attorney Robert M. Morgenthau.

The couple is charged with stealing property, mainly watches, jewelry and cash with a total estimated value of $350,000, and selling some of the watches and jewelry to a store on W. 57th St., according to the District Attorney’s office. Police are still investigating the couple’s possible involvement in more than a dozen other penthouse burglaries in Manhattan.

Their downfall came on April 26 when Jeffrey Kelsrud saw the pair standing on the patio of his seventh-floor penthouse at 270 W. 19th St. at about 11 p.m. trying to jimmy the door, according to the complaint filed by Det. Kevin McPartlan, of the 10th Precinct detective squad.

The couple fled and jumped to another roof at 274 W. 19th St. when Kelsrud challenged them, police said. Kelsrud and a friend followed and held Nestingen and Pavozehr, who struggled and punched them until police arrived to take them unto custody.

After the arrest, police made a warrant search of the couple’s room at the Chelsea Hotel on W. 23rd St. and recovered an undisclosed amount of stolen jewelry and other items, according to reports.

The pair is also charged with opening an unlocked door at another penthouse apartment at 270 W. 19th St. about 8:20 p.m. on March 27 and stealing more than five watches, jewelry and cash with a total value of more than $20,000, according to the criminal complaint.

Three days before they were arrested, the couple shattered the door of a penthouse at 234 W. 19th at 11 p.m. and made off with watches, jewelry and cash valued at more than $15,000, the charges say.

On April 25, the couple entered a penthouse apartment at 150 W. 82nd St. through an open window shortly before 7 p.m. and took jewelry and a laptop computer with an estimated total value of $6,000, the complaint says.

On April 2, the couple disabled a rooftop burglar alarm and opened a window at 7:30 p.m. to enter a penthouse apartment at 59 W. 71st St. and took a laptop computer.

The owner of the W. 71st St. penthouse told police she remembered talking to the couple in the elevator of her building a few weeks before the April 2 break-in, describing them as “presentable” and dressed in sports jackets and slacks.

Police said Nestingen told them that after the first burglary, he discovered that doors and windows were often left open at penthouse apartments, which proved to be rich and easy pickings. Nestingen and Pavozehr told police they had come to New York from Georgia because Pavozehr, recently divorced, wanted to visit her children living with their father Upstate.

Nestingen and Pavozehr were being held for a June 8 arraignment.

— By Albert Amateau