NEW YORK (1010 WINS) -- A Long Island girl who walked into her home and discovered a serial burglar inside was "definitely traumatized" by the incident, her father said in an interview with 1010 WINS.
Anthony Agrillo picked his 12-year-old daughter up from her school bus stop around 3 p.m. on Wednesday, he told 1010 WINS' Darius Radzius.
Anthony Agrillo and his 12-year-old daughter.
Not long after his daughter went into their Farmingdale home, she sprinted out shouting, Agrillo recalled.
"She came running out saying, 'Dad, dad, there's a man in the house!'" he said.
Agrillo, who is a retired NYPD officer, rushed inside and held the man there — identified by police as 38-year-old Nicholas Fileccia — until Nassau County officers arrived.
Fileccia, who lives in East Meadow, has been accused of burglarizing several other homes on Long Island while residents were still home as well, police said. He has been charged with three counts of second-degree burglary and three counts of possession of burglar tools, a felony complaint shows.
Agrillo said his daughter was shaken by the incident.
"She was definitely traumatized," he said. "I told my daughter, 'I'll never complain about getting you off that bus ever again."
