The Ninja Burglar – or a copycat?
That was the question puzzling cops yesterday after a Staten Island home owner reported that a man dressed in a black and wearing a black ski mask tried to get into his home.
The brazen Ninja Burglar, a man in black who carries nunchuk sticks, has struck 16 homes on Staten Island between May 20 and Friday.
In the latest incident, Steven Okrepka, 38, said he was working in his basement of his home in Castleton Corners about 3:30 a.m. yesterday when he heard a noise.
Two monitors were installed in the basement years ago because the house was burglarized twice.
Okrepka told The Post that one of the monitors wasn’t working, but the other showed a man in black trying to get in.
“It was really scary,” he said. “He was dressed all in black. He was wearing what looked like a black mask with three holes in it.”
“I was scared,” he added. “I said to myself, ‘Should I get a weapon. Should I get a hammer?’ ”
Okrepka, who wears a brace because of a bad back, grabbed a bat and walked upstairs.
He left the house by a side door and began banging on the sides with the bat, hoping to scare the man off.
Then, he said, he opened the front door so he could turn on the lights and found that the lights in the back yard had been turned off and a screen for the laundry room had been pulled off.
Okrepka said he ran across the street to get help from some teenage neighbors who were up. One of them noticed a man running away.
Okrepka said that when he checked the house, he found that $400 was missing.
He said he believes that while he was getting help from his neighbors, the mystery burglar darted inside and grabbed it.
Police sources said they haven’t been able to confirm the story or determine if this was another strike by the Ninja Burglar.