NEW YORK (AP) – He’s not a killer, a gangster or even a bank robber.

But a bizarre home invasion, a cat-and-mouse manhunt and a tabloid feeding frenzy have combined to make a failed fashion writer named Peter Braunstein the city’s most wanted man.

Detectives say they want to question Braunstein, 41, in a Halloween night episode in which an armed man bound and molested a woman in her Manhattan apartment after starting a fire and posing as a firefighter coming to her rescue. But police cannot find him – despite a $12,000 reward, a mug shot that has become a front-page mainstay and repeated appeals by his father to give himself up.

“If only he would turn himself in because he needs help very, very badly,” said Alberto Braunstein.

Police have been grappling with a slew of possible Braunstein sightings and a barrage of questions about why he has evaded capture for nearly three weeks – a drumbeat so persistent that even Mayor Michael Blooomberg was asked about Braunstein at a Thursday news conference.

The latest sighting on Thursday – by a Brooklyn shop owner who believes he sold Braunstein a cup of coffee – fueled the latest breathless headlines – “I SAW THE FIEND!” (Daily News) and “KEEP THE CHANGE: Fire fiend flees coffee shop & cops” (New York Post).

Keeping with the drama, the shop owner John Arena told a pack of reporters he felt like he “saw a ghost.”

“He caught on right away,” he said. “In other words, he knew that I knew who he was.”

It appears Arena was mistaken.

Officers converged on the area. Bloodhounds led them to a vacant four-story building where a SWAT team moved in as a police helicopter circled overhead. Still no Braunstein.

A law enforcement official said on Friday detectives have fresh evidence indicating the suspect may have left the city within the last week. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the investigation isn’t complete, declined further comment.

The saga began Halloween night, when police say a man dressed in full fire gear set two tiny blazes – later extinguished by real firefighters – inside an apartment building in Chelsea. With smoke filling the hallway, he pounded on the victim’s door and announced he was from the “FDNY.”

The 34-year-old woman told detectives that when she opened her door, the fake firefighter pulled a handgun on her, then covered her face with a rag soaked in some type of chemical.

As she faded in and out of consciousness, the man put on a ski mask, tied her up and gagged her with duct tape before molesting her, she said. She also recalled him videotaping the attack.

The man left the apartment at about 7 the next morning, leaving the victim naked and bound to her bed. She managed to free herself and call police.

Despite repeated references in the tabloids to a rape, police said they found no evidence of that.

Soon after the incident, people who knew Braunstein began telling both reporters and police that he was a brilliant talent with a sadistic streak – and a likely suspect in the fake firefighter incident.

Braunstein, an aspiring playwright and freelance journalist who once wrote for Women’s Wear Daily, was reportedly fired by the magazine in 2002 in a dispute over tickets to an awards show.

A year later, prosecutors allege, he began harassing an ex-girlfriend who worked at the magazine, sending her hundreds of threatening messages and posting nude photos of her on the Internet. He eventually pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor and was given three years probation.

By the time investigators began to suspect Braunstein plotted the firefighter ploy as part of a new fixation, he was on the lam. But there also were signs he was staying close to home, prompting speculation he was enjoying his newfound infamy.

Security cameras captured images of the fugitive at a Super 8 motel on West 46th Street, where he apparently holed up for a few nights after the attack. Investigators also briefly tracked his movements by monitoring the use of a subway fare card bought with his credit card.

Braunstein may have an obsessional disorder, but probably wouldn’t enjoy the reverse obsession over him, said Louis B. Schlesinger, a professor of forensic psychology at John Jay College of Criminal Justice.

“To say he may be toying with police is nothing but pure speculation,” he said. “That’s big hype. Usually, these people simply don’t want to be caught.”

Copy the Story Link