She posed as the heartbroken aunt of a murdered child.

Cops accuse a 37-year-old Bronx woman of fraudulently collecting money she said would help victims of the Sandy Hook massacre, but that instead went to her pockets.

Bronx district Attorney Robert Johnson announced today that he indicted Nouel Alba for fraud and identity theft.

Cops arrested Alba this morning after a five-month investigation, officials said.

Prosecutors say Alba used Facebook to collect cash, posting photographs of 6-year-old Noah Pozner, a victim of the attack.

Alba said she was his aunt and asked for donations to help pay for his funeral, prosecutors allege.

Ultimately, she received about $240 within the week after the attack, sent to a Paypal account designated by Facebook.

Alba could face up to four years in jail.

The post Prosecutors charge Bronx woman with Sandy Hook donations fraud appeared first on Metro.us.

Following a sting dubbed Operation to Catch a Thief, Kings County attorneys Monday indicted a Brooklyn man accused of stealing valuable works of art.

Prosecutors say Joselito Vega, 42, stole the paintings from a house he was hired to work on as a painter in March 2011. He was assigned through his employer to the Schulhof Estate in Kings Point, a well-known repository of fine arts.

About a year later, when the Schulhof Estate performed an inventory, three paintings had gone missing: “Le Fauteuil II (the Armchair II)” by Jean DuBuffet, valued at $50,000, “Tuftonboro” by Frank Stella and “Flower” by Norman Lewis.

Vega allegedly sold the DuBuffet painting through an Oakland gallery, to a buyer in Monaco, using the name of his ex-sister-in-law. He then cashed the check in her name, after having her open a new bank account.

In May 2012, investigators set up a sting operation at the Schulhof Estate with hidden cameras. Vega was hired again to work on the house. This time, prosecutors say he was caught on tape stealing three more artworks: a Pablo Picasso etching, “Three Graces II,” a “Presence de Rythmes” by Yaacov Agam and another Jean Dubuffet work called “Chien.”

He faces multiple charges of grand larceny and identity theft, for which he can serve as many as 26 years in prison if convicted.

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