A clueless Upper East Side cat burglar fell six stories to his death yesterday after he got startled and tried to flee — by running across flimsy chicken wire stretched between two building rooftops.
The half-witted hood had been trying to push in a screen on a sixth-floor rear balcony at 304 E. 91st St., between First and Second avenues, about 10:20 a.m. when he was spotted by a resident.
“He tried to come in through the terrace I share with my neighbor,” said Tiffany Spencer, 28.
After the neighbor called police, “he ran off and somehow fell through” the buildings’ gap, she said.
Police sources said the burglar had scrambled up a fire escape to the roof. He tried to run across the 3-foot-wide shaft to the building at 306-08 E. 91st St. but fell through chicken wire attached to a rickety wooden frame and dropped to his death, sources said.
“I heard a fall, a noise, and I called 911,” said James Charles, 55, a building worker. “At first, I thought it was an air-conditioner.”
The burglar, who had no ID on him, was pronounced dead at the scene.
Additional reporting by Colin Mixson