NEW YORK (PIX11) – A Manhattan doorman is accused of stealing $477,685 from a retired school teacher and her husband over a period of two years, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg announced on Wednesday.
The two victims lived at 380 Riverside Drive in Manhattan, where the defendant, Alfredo Mateo, 38, of Yonkers, was employed as a doorman.
An investigation revealed the defendant deposited 26 checks he stole from the victims. Mateo even stole pension checks after both victims had died, according to court documents.
“As alleged, Alfredo Mateo abused his access as a doorman to deplete the financial accounts of a retired teacher who was living in a nursing home and her husband, who had recently passed away,” said District Attorney Bragg. “Those who take advantage of the access entrusted to them to target older community members and steal from hardworking New Yorkers will be held accountable.”
The victims, including a retired teacher under guardianship and her husband, had their funds stolen from as far back as September 2022, according to court documents.
The defendant wrote checks to himself from the teacher's bank account and deposited them into his personal account. He also created false checks from the victim's husband's account. Investigators said many checks had false explanations in the memo line.
At one point during his tenure as the doorman for the building where the victims lived, Mateo used personal information obtained from a letter addressed to the victim. The letter was from the Teachers’ Retirement System of the City of New York. Mateo used personal information obtained from the letter to submit at least five falsified claims to the TRS between May and October 2023. Two of these claims were made after the teacher’s death in July 2023, resulting in payments from the victim's annuity, court documents said.
Mateo even attempted to change the direct deposit on the victim's TRS membership account to his personal bank account. The Manhattan DA noted in at least two instances, Mateo called the TRS twice from his personal phone and pretended to be the teacher, who would have been 91 years old at the time. Mateo attempted to change his voice to sound like an older woman after his first call did not succeed, court documents allege.
The defendant is facing the following charges:
It remains unclear what tipped authorities off to investigate the defendant.
Matthew Euzarraga is a multimedia journalist from El Paso, Texas. He has covered local news and LGBTQIA topics in the New York City Metro area since 2021. He joined the PIX11 Digital team in 2023. You can see more of his work here.
