Brooklyn Couple Snags Nikon Traffic Cameras With Cherry PickerBy JAMIE SCHRAM, JOHN DOYLE and DAN MANGAN, July 22, 2009Source: New York PostTwo oddballs have been busted for swiping nearly 20 percent of the city's red-light cameras right under Big Brother's nose, The Post has learned.
They allegedly drove around town in a pickup truck with a cherry-picker to dismantle 22 of the high-end Nikons from their street poles. The devices are used to identify red-light-running drivers, who then are issued tickets by mail.
The suspects peddled an estimated $88,000 worth of goods to a camera resale shop for $300 each to feed their heroin habits, law-enforcement sources said yesterday.
The alleged perps -- Anthony Cintorrino, 45, and 29-year-old trust-fund baby Tara LaBurt, both of Brooklyn -- swiped the traffic cameras at intersections in The Bronx, Brooklyn and Queens between June 24 and this past Sunday, sources said.
Cintorrino was held in lieu of $8,000 bond; LaBurt -- in an oversized T-shirt, torn black stockings, a purple miniskirt and flip-flops -- was held in lieu of $3,000 bond.
On Sunday morning, an employee of a hardware store on Coney Island Avenue at Dorchester Road in Brooklyn told The Post that two people matching the descriptions of the suspects pulled up in a truck and took something from the camera box.
The couple claimed to work for Mulvihill ICS, a Staten Island company in charge of maintaining the cameras for the city Department of Transportation. "Then they ran away," the employee said.
Cintorrino previously did subcontracting work as a camera installer for Mulvihill ICS, the company said.
Court records indicate he has a long history of illicit drug use and psychiatric problems. In 2004, he sued the manufacturer of the antidepressant drug Wellbutrin, saying he attempted suicide after taking the drug, but dropped the suit.
LaBurt, who comes from a wealthy family, most recently worked for her brother's film-production company.
"This is really scary for the whole family," said LaBurt's brother, director Michael LaBurt. "My mother is freaking out. The family is kind of in shock."
He added, "Tara is a product of a trust-fund culture," and is the great-granddaughter of a founder of UPS. But recently, he said, the family has had money problems.
Michael said his family pushed Tara to enter an upstate drug-rehab program twice in recent months after she was arrested for drunken driving.
Michael said he believes that Tara -- who was trying to get into the French Culinary Institute -- met Cintorrino recently after leaving rehab.
Cops nabbed LaBurt and Cintorrino on Monday in Manhattan after finding 13 of the stolen cameras at a reseller and tracing them, sources said.
Three other stolen cameras were found at their residences, and cops expect soon to recover the other six that were swiped, sources said.
A DOT spokesman said, "We replaced the stolen cameras within 48 hours of being detected. We visit each site daily, so we knew within a day when they were missing."
