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Burglar Arrest Nets Couple's Precious Ring

By JORDAN MOSS

When Ilsa Garcia perfectly described the inscription on the engagement ring she had never seen, Katie Sullivan, a 52nd Precinct detective, exclaimed over the phone, "Ms. Garcia, I love you!" 

There's a lot of love going around now that cops have collared a burglary suspect who's been stealing jewelry, electronics and other valuables from anguished area residents for months. 

The engagement ring Garcia described was one her boyfriend of 12 years, Paul Aviles, had planned to give her on Valentine's Day at Jimmy's Bronx Cafe. It was hidden in their Marion Avenue apartment. But when Garcia returned from a short trip to the store, the apartment was ransacked and all the jewelry -- including the engagement ring -- was gone. 

"I was only out of the house for about an hour," Garcia said. "If you would have seen my place -- [it] was trashed." 

Aviles showed Garcia, 31, the receipt to prove he had bought her a ring, but neither had any hopes of ever seeing it again. 

Garcia was devastated. "A girl waits and waits, and when it's finally supposed to happen, they steal it," she said. 

But three months later, Sullivan called when a ring matched the description in the couple's burglary complaint. Garcia, a student at Bronx Community College, couldn't describe the ring but knew what the inscription was -- "IG -- PA 10-13-91" -- their initials and the date they started going together. Garcia called Aviles, who works at a Manhattan hotel, on his cell phone. He was at a friend's house nearby. The two met up in front of the building and together they rushed over to the precinct on Webster Avenue. In the community room, in the back, all the recovered stolen goods were laid out on two large conference tables. 

When cops gave them the ring and they positively identified it, Aviles, 30, put it on Garcia's finger.

"I was so happy I was crying," she recalled. "I was laughing, I was crying, I was hugging him. 

Garcia possessed the ring long enough to take a picture of it, but then she had to give it back, as it is evidence in the case against the burglary suspect, Pedro Sanchez.  Cops were led to Sanchez from "information that was elicited from an unrelated arrest," said Lieutenant Donald Henne, commander of the 52nd Precinct Detective Squad. "He alluded to an individual that was known to have proceeds of crimes." 

For three weeks, Sullivan, Detective Kieran Keenaghan, and others in the squad have undertaken the tedious task of comparing burglary complaint records to the hundreds of items they recovered from Sanchez' apartment and Bronx pawn shops. They've been making many people happy, but probably none so much as Aviles and Garcia. 

"Never in a million years did I ever expect anything back," Garcia said. "To me this is some sort of miracle."

Aviles and Garcia said they would wait until they get the ring back for good before getting officially engaged. 

From their mouths to the ears of the criminal justice system.