ABC7NY’s Anthony Carlo introduced the story like something straight out of a security-camera nightmare: a burglary crew forcing its way into a home in Jamaica Estates, Queens, apparently hunting for a luxury car.
It wasn’t a smash-and-grab at a store. It wasn’t a porch pirate snatching a box. This was someone climbing into a private home at night, while a family was inside.
Carlo reported the intruders seemed to be looking for a Bentley, and more specifically the key fob that would let them drive it away. That detail matters, because it explains why burglars aren’t satisfied with checking a driveway anymore. If they want the fob, they may feel they have to go inside.
That’s the part that turns property crime into something much more dangerous. Once strangers cross into a lived-in house, the odds of panic, confrontation, and violence go way up.
Carlo also made it clear the homeowner believes this kind of crime has been happening more and more in the neighborhood, not as some rare fluke, but as a repeating pattern that residents talk about.
The Window Pop and the Flashlight Sweep
Carlo’s report leaned heavily on what the homeowner described from inside the house, moment by moment.
The homeowner, identified in the report as Moshe Borukh, told Carlo that once the burglars “popped” something open, that’s when he realized someone was breaking in.
That sound – an unfamiliar clank or snap in the night – is the kind of detail people don’t forget. You can be half asleep, confused, trying to convince yourself it’s nothing, and then your brain finally catches up.
Carlo said security video shows the burglar barging in through a window in the middle of the night and then using a phone flashlight to rummage around the kitchen.
That phone-light detail is chilling, because it shows how comfortable the intruder felt. They weren’t sprinting. They weren’t stumbling. They were searching.
Moshe told Carlo the burglar came over and peeked, because he could hear Moshe yelling from another part of the home.
That tells you the burglar knew someone was there and still kept moving. And that’s the “they didn’t seem to care” feeling Moshe described later—like the presence of an awake homeowner wasn’t enough to make the intruder instantly stop.
Carlo framed it as the moment an “easy job” flipped into something else entirely.
Because the homeowner was armed.
“I Have a Gun, Don’t Move” – And Then the Jam
Carlo reported that Moshe confronted the intruder with a gun drawn, and Moshe recalled shouting words to the effect of: “I have a gun, don’t move.”
It’s hard to overstate how quickly that kind of situation can go bad, even if the homeowner is legally armed and trying to defend his family.
In a few seconds, you’re balancing fear, adrenaline, the possibility the intruder is armed too, the fact your family may be nearby, and the reality that police aren’t already standing in the hallway.
Moshe told Carlo he pulled the trigger.
And the gun jammed.
That single mechanical failure is the kind of “what if” that stays with a person for years. Carlo relayed Moshe’s reaction in stark terms: Moshe described it as “divine intervention,” saying the gun didn’t shoot.
Carlo added a line that said a lot without getting preachy: if the gun had worked the way it was intended, the station might have been covering a very different story that night.
Instead, Carlo said the burglar nearly jumped out of his skin and ran for his life.
What stood out in Carlo’s description is the contrast: the intruder arrived with confidence, but left in panic.
That tells you the firearm still changed the outcome, even with the jam. The threat of force was enough to break the intruder’s plan and make him bolt.
Still, it’s hard not to look at that jam as a warning label on every “just buy a gun” conversation. Owning a firearm is not a magic charm. It’s a tool that can fail, especially if it’s not maintained, tested, or understood.
“They Knew Somebody Was Home” – And Came Anyway
Moshe told Carlo something that might be the most unsettling detail in the whole report.
He said both of his cars were sitting in the driveway. He said the lights turned on when the burglars approached the front gate.
In other words, there were obvious signs of life.
And Moshe told Carlo the burglars “knew somebody was home,” but they didn’t seem to care.
That line hits because it suggests a change in the risk calculation. A lot of people grow up thinking burglars prefer empty houses.
But this kind of crime – the hunt for key fobs, the targeted search for specific vehicles – seems to push some crews into doing the thing most criminals used to avoid: entering occupied homes.
Carlo also reported that Moshe’s wife and kids were home during the break-in.
That’s not a minor detail. That’s the emotional center of the story.
If you’re a parent and you hear someone climbing through a window, you don’t just think about your TV or your jewelry. You think about bedrooms. You think about hallways. You think about whether you can keep your family safe.
Carlo reported that once the burglars ran into the armed homeowner, they fled the house. The crew didn’t get the Bentley. They didn’t get the fob.
But the fact that it even reached that point is what’s rattling.
The Detective’s Warning: Other Burglaries Succeeded That Night
Carlo didn’t present this incident as a one-off. He tied it to a bigger string of crimes, based on what Moshe said detectives told him afterward.
Moshe told Carlo that detectives said there was a dispatch for three other burglaries, and that two were successful.
Moshe said those burglars stole another Porsche and a Range Rover.
That detail is important for two reasons.
First, it suggests an organized pattern – crews targeting high-end vehicles, possibly using the same approach in the same general window of time.
Second, it shows how close this can feel for a neighborhood. Even when your own family escapes physical harm, you find out someone else didn’t get so lucky a few blocks over.
Carlo also reported that it happened to be the one night Moshe did not activate his home’s alarm system.
Some people will hear that and jump straight to blame. But Carlo’s reporting didn’t treat it like a moral failure. It treated it like a human detail: a moment where routine didn’t happen, and the wrong people showed up at the wrong time.
If anything, it reads like a reminder that criminals don’t schedule their moves around your best habits. They strike when they strike, and homeowners are always trying to live normal lives in between.
Moshe told Carlo he is licensed to conceal carry, which explains why he had a gun accessible and why he was prepared to confront the intruder.
Community Alert During Yeshiva Week
Carlo reported that the home invasion has pushed the community into action.
He said the incident prompted the Bukharan community to issue an alert to Jewish residents who might be away for Yeshiva Week.
That’s a detail that tells you residents aren’t just worried about one house. They’re worried about timing – about vacations, empty homes, and families returning late at night.
Moshe also gave Carlo a quote that sounded like a mix of defiance and exhaustion.
He said something along the lines of: if they want to come back, let them – and he added that “this time the gun won’t be jammed,” while also saying he hopes it doesn’t come to that.
That statement captures a reality a lot of people don’t want to admit out loud: after something like this, your sense of peace changes.
You start thinking in contingencies. You start rehearsing scenarios in your head. And you start questioning how much of your safety is luck and timing.
Moshe told Carlo he doesn’t feel like he has a target on his back, because in his view, everybody is a target – he called it a “collective community.”
That’s a bleak thought, but it’s also honest in a way. When crews are moving through neighborhoods looking for expensive cars and easy access, the “target” can become whoever happens to have the right driveway.
Carlo ended the report noting police are looking for three suspects involved in the incident.
What This Says About Home Invasions Now
Carlo’s report leaves you with a clear impression: the crime itself is frightening, but the trend is what really shakes people.
A burglar climbing through a window is scary. A burglar doing it while people are clearly home is a different kind of scary. And a burglar doing it as part of a pattern of luxury-car thefts feels like a problem that spreads.
It also raises uncomfortable questions about preparedness that most people don’t enjoy thinking about.
Moshe’s gun jammed. That fact alone is a lesson that tends to get brushed aside in TV arguments. Tools fail. Plans break. Your body shakes. Your voice cracks. Your hands don’t do what you want them to do.
And yet, Carlo’s reporting suggests the gun still mattered, because it snapped the intruder out of “control mode” and sent him running.
The bigger takeaway, though, is the one Moshe practically spelled out: lights, cars in the driveway, and signs of a family inside didn’t stop the burglars.
If that’s where things are headed – if criminals are willing to gamble that a homeowner will freeze, or be unarmed, or be too scared to resist – then neighborhoods like Jamaica Estates are going to keep having these tense “almost tragedies.”
Anthony Carlo’s report didn’t glamorize the confrontation. It showed it for what it was: a chaotic, high-stakes moment where a family got lucky, a burglar ran, and a homeowner was left staring at how close the night came to disaster.
Raised in a small Arizona town, Kevin grew up surrounded by rugged desert landscapes and a family of hunters. His background in competitive shooting and firearms training has made him an authority on self-defense and gun safety. A certified firearms instructor, Kevin teaches others how to properly handle and maintain their weapons, whether for hunting, home defense, or survival situations. His writing focuses on responsible gun ownership, marksmanship, and the role of firearms in personal preparedness.
