$1.46M bond for Nassau purse-snatch suspect

A Massapequa man accused of going on a five-day purse-snatching spree with a Deer Park woman was arraigned Sunday and ordered held on $1.46-million bond or $730,000 cash.

Alfonso Zitoli, 29, was arrested along with Veronica Sarabella, 30, Saturday night after the latest reported robbery, which occurred outside a ShopRite in Plainview, police said.

Zitoli appeared in Nassau County First District Court Sunday afternoon. He told the judge that he earned $800 a week working in a Syosset deli to support himself and his girlfriend.

Sarabella's arraignment was delayed after she was admitted to the hospital Sunday morning, police said. A spokesman said he had no details on her hospitalization.

Plainclothes officers from Nassau's Eighth Precinct saw a black Nissan on Saturday that matched one used in the robberies, including some drive-by snatches. They followed the car into West Babylon, where Suffolk County police aided in a traffic stop. Zitoli and Sarabella were then arrested.

Court documents state that Zitoli made "oral admissions" about some of the robberies. The suspects made off with $1,080 from the robberies, the documents said.

Both are charged with two counts of second-degree robbery, attempted second-degree robbery and three counts of fourth-degree grand larceny. Zitoli also faces three counts of third-degree robbery.

Police say the purse-snatchings began Jan. 18 at the Massapequa Long Island Rail Road station, continued outside a King Kullen in Bethpage Jan. 19, a Pathmark in Seaford Jan. 20, and peaked with three incidents within an hour Friday.

In the first of those, a man stole a handbag from a shopping cart outside BJ's in Levittown while the victim was placing groceries in her car. Nine minutes later, a woman in a dark Nissan grabbed a purse from a woman walking in Delco Plaza in Hicksville.

Sixteen minutes after that, a woman pulled a purse from a victim at Jerusalem Avenue and Old Country Road in Hicksville, causing her to fall to the ground.

As police stepped up patrols, searching for the suspects' Nissan, incidents were reported about 4:30 p.m. Saturday at a King Kullen in Manhasset, and about 5:30 p.m. at the ShopRite in Plainview. In the last crime, the victim's shoulder was injured when her handbag was ripped away from her.

The arrests come days after two men were jailed in connection with an earlier string of Nassau purse-snatchings.

In those crimes, Adesola Oguntunji, 20, of Westbury, and Lucson Desir, 22, of New Cassel, have been charged with one incident and are suspected in 13 others, police said.

With Matthew Chayes

and Keiko Morris