Cops busted a drugstore burglar this week by tracking him from high in the sky, dramatic video obtained by The Post shows.
The burglar, who was wearing a surgical mask and a dark sweatshirt, broke into Neergard Pharmacy at 120 7th Ave. In Park Slope, Brooklyn, at around 4:30 a.m. Wednesday and stole about $2,200 in cash and about a hundred pills. Cops responded to a 911 call about the burglary in progress but when they arrived they found that the pill fiend had already fled, police sources said.
Little did he know an NYPD helicopter was hovering overhead. The NYPD called in its Aviation Unit and detectives used a description of the suspect to find him using a helicopter’s cameras.
The chopper hovers above the culprit as additional police officers close in on him below at 65th Avenue and 110th Street in Queens — about 13 miles away from the store, the video shows. The masked man, identified by cops as Ralph Wilson, can be seen on police body camera putting up his hands and surrendering to cops, who cuffed him.
Wilson, 28, who has nine prior arrests, allegedly stole oxycodone, codeine and Xanax along with the cash that was in the register, police sources said. He was previously arrested for five burglaries going back to 2015, the sources said. He was also charged in 2017 with a felony assault on Rikers Island that happened the prior year, the sources said.
For the most recent caper, he was charged with burglary and possession of a controlled substance, cops said. The dramatic footage shows the NYPD Aviation Unit’s helicopter maintaining visual contact with Wilson as ground units moved in to make the arrest.
Burglary is down 16% to 60 so far this year from 71 during the same period last year in Brooklyn’s 78 Precinct, where the drug store is located, according to NYPD data. The crime is down 15% citywide to 6,589 from 7,760 at this point in 2025.
In the viral moment that led to the arrest, Wilson had already fled the Park Slope pharmacy by the time officers responded to the 911 call about the burglary in progress. The NYPD’s Aviation Unit was called in and used the helicopter’s cameras to track Wilson using a description of the suspect, leading to his surrender at 65th Avenue and 110th Street in Queens.
Wilson remains in custody following the charges of burglary and possession of a controlled substance.