BRUCE LEE
“That’s the fat guy!”
TO A TEE: A theft victim saw this pic (inset above) in yesterday’s Post (left) and matched it to a Maryland vid (above) of the same guy. (
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A Maryland golfer whose pricey watch was swiped from a fancy country-club locker finally learned the identity of the quarter-ton suspect yesterday — by seeing his photo on The Post’s Web site.
“That’s the fat guy who stole my Rolex!” said Silver Spring real-estate developer Bruce Lee, who recognized the XXXL man from surveillance videos taken at a Target store after his credit card was stolen at Rockville golf course on July 13.
He sent the picture to cops, and Montgomery Police Detective Melanie Macuch e-mailed Lee back: “WOW!!”
“There is no doubt in my mind that is him!” the detective wrote Lee. “I will be getting an arrest warrant for Mr. [Luis] Paz.”
According to cops, Paz — whose picture on the Post’s Web site was snapped after a New Jersey golf-course heist — acted as the wheelman for accomplice Oscar Cabrera, who dressed like a golfer to clean out lockers at elite country clubs up and down the East Coast.
Cabrera, who was arrested on July 20, allegedly took credit cards and watches from unlocked lockers.
The portly Paz was busted in Queens on Aug. 1, and is currently on Rikers Island. He will likely be extradited to New Jersey to face the first wave of charges.
Their Garden State targets included the posh Canoe Brook Country Club in Summit and the stately Baltusrol Golf Club in Springfield — home to seven US Opens.
Lee said he had been golfing at the Manor Country Club in Rockville on July 13 when his $8,000 silver Rolex Submariner and his corporate credit card were swiped from his locker.
Detective Macuch sent Lee a surveillance photo (left) of the massive man in a blue shirt who, within minutes of the theft, had used the card in an unsuccessful attempt to purchase an $8,000 Target gift card.
Nobody knew the alleged thief’s identity until Lee saw a similar picture of the 450-pounder in yesterday’s Post (inset).
“It’s the exact same fat guy as the fat guy,” Lee said.
Montgomery Police believe the same crooks ripped off the nearby Chevy Chase Club — a stately golf course built in 1892, and one of the oldest in the country — earlier in the day on July 13.
Lee remembers seeing a man who fits the description of Cabrera lurking near the locker room wearing golf shoes and a golf glove right before the Rolex went missing.