Bookseller suspected of stealing stacks

ALBUQUERQUE (KRQE) - An Albuquerque man accused of shoplifting over and over again may be hitting the University of New Mexico area, police said Thursday.

UNM police said they're looking for Vincent Cordova, who is suspected of swiping books off bookshelves and then reselling them.

Brian Yu claims he knows all too well what Cordova is capable of doing.

"He needs to be taken off the street," Yu said.

A couple weeks ago Yu said Cordova tried selling him a stack of textbooks at his store, Samee's, near UNM.

But Yu claims because he's caught Cordova stealing books from him it was likely he'd stolen the books he was now trying to pawn.

"So I didn't buy them," said Yu. "And he threatened me."

The bookstore manager said Cordova threatened to come after him and come back, and that he'd made good on those promises.

"Two days later he came back and tried to steal a book, and we caught him," said Yu. "So we followed him out the door, and he pulled a knife on us."

"I stepped back and I said, 'Just give me back the book,'" Cordova said. "I told my employee to call the cops, and he (Cordova) was like, 'Wait, wait, wait, don't call the cops.'

"And he gave me back the book."

Still, Yu said he called police, and it turned out Yu was likely right about the textbooks Cordova had tried to sell him.

"We suspect him of coming into the bookstore and stealing a backpack, loading it up with books and walking out," UNM Lt. Robert Haarhues said.

Yu said Cordova usually walks down aisles, looks for the most expensive book and then when no one is looking Cordova is suspected of tucking it under his clothes.

UNM police said they've believe they got Cordova on UNM bookstore surveillance cameras stealing books, and that it's not his first time.

Haarhues said he plans on banning Cordova from campus as well as issuing a court summons on the UNM bookstore theft.

"He's around here somewhere riding his bike looking for an opportunity to do it again," said Yu.