A Brooklyn detective was caught on surveillance video pocketing more than $3,000 in cash from a bodega he and his fellow cops were raiding for selling loose cigarettes, cops said.
Twelve year NYPD veteran Ian Cyrus, was suspended without pay after the store’s owner noticed the money was missing from a cigar box stashed beneath the counter and reported the incident to his bosses, police said.
Cyrus, a member of the Brooklyn North Narcotics squad, entered the Yemen Deli and Grocery store on Marcus Garvey Boulevard in Bedford-Stuyvesant last Friday night with several other cops and arrested two employees accused of selling the loose cigarettes.
Surveillance video obtained by ABC 7 appears to show Cyrus stuffing a wad of bills into his pocket as the officers conducted a search of the store following the arrests.
It wasn’t until the following day that store owner Ali Abdullah noticed the money was missing from a cigar box he kept under the counter, Channel 7 reported.
Thinking one of his employees was to blame, Abdullah went back and looked at the store’s elaborate 12 camera surveillance system and witnessed the cop emptying the cigar box and then pocketing the money.
“I was thinking it was robbery, because I never seen the video,” he told Channel 7. “When I look at my system, I see the officer took the money. It’s crazy.”
Abdullah reported the detective to the NYPD and the incident is currently being investigated by the department’s Internal Affairs Bureau and the Brooklyn District Attorneys’ office.
Cyrus has been suspended pending the outcome of that investigation. His supervisor, Sgt. Fritz Glemaud, is currently on modified assignment, according to a NYPD spokesperson.
