NYPD Officer Tried to Steal Boarded-Up Brooklyn Townhouse: DA

In a bizarre attempt to play Brooklyn real-estate god, Blanche O’Neal, a longtime officer with the New York City Police Department (NYPD), managed to steal a rundown, boarded-up, three-family townhome in Bed-Stuy around three years ago, the Brooklyn District Attorney’s Office announced on Monday.

However, her plan was foiled when, in 2014, the building’s rightful owner finally tried to sell it off himself, the DA said.

“This defendant allegedly stole a house from its rightful owner with the stroke of a pen, apparently hoping no one would notice,” Brooklyn DA Ken Thompson said in a statement. ”But her brazen actions have unraveled and she will now be held accountable.”

“That she is a veteran NYPD officer makes this alleged crime all the more disturbing,” Thompson added.

O’Neal, who lives just down the street from the contested home at 23A Vernon Avenue, filed a deed at the Office of the City Registrar transferring the property to herself in 2012, according to the indictment against her.

In that paperwork, O’Neal allegedly claimed that she had purchased the home for $10,000 from the nephew of the deceased homeowner, Lillian Hudson.

Prosecutors now say that sale was completely fabricated.

Hudson’s nephew and three other relatives inherited the townhome in 1993, according to the DA, “though it sat vacant and neglected for many years.”

Perhaps because of this, two whole years passed before the family noticed that 23A Vernon no longer belonged to them in the eyes of the city.

The NYPD officer’s attorney, Edward Harold King, told Gothamist that his client is not guilty and that he’ll ”vigorously defend the case” as such. However, the attorney declined to clarify why and how O’Neal’s signature had, in fact, ended up on that deed.

O’Neal is facing 15 years in jail for grand larceny, criminal possession of a forged instrument, offering a false instrument for filing and perjury, according to the DA.

O’Neal has patrolled the streets of Bushwick for the past 12 years, Gothamist reported, but is now on unpaid leave.

Patch has reached out to the NYPD for more information on her current status; we’ll update when we hear back.

In the meantime, here’s one last crazy twist: An officer by the same name (Blanche O’Neal), assigned to the same precinct (the 83rd), reportedly threatened to sue two of her black superiors in 2008 for using racist language toward her on the job.