TOWN OF ISLIP, N.Y. (CBSNewYork) – A Long Island judge stands accused of breaking into a neighbor’s home, but it’s what police say he stole that’s baffling residents even more. He’s accused of taking worn women’s underwear from the residence.

It happened around 9 a.m. Thursday on Donna Place in East Islip.

“There was a 23-year-old girl home alone. She heard noise in the house, she saw an intruder,” Suffolk County Police Chief of Department Stuart Cameron said.

When the intruder realized someone was home, police said he ran off. But officers quickly caught up with him a couple blocks away.

Turns out, it was a man who should know better, CBS2’s Jessica Layton reported.

District court judge Robert Cicale lives right across the street from the home that he’s accused of burglarizing.

“He was found to be in possession of soiled female undergarments that we believe were either proceeds from today’s burglary or proceeds from a prior burglary at the same location,” Cameron said.

The 49-year-old was elected to the bench in 2015. Before that, he served as Islip town attorney.

It’s unclear how Cicale got into the home or how well he knew his neighbor before the bizarre burglary, Layton reported.

The judge will not only spend a night in jail, but he’ll face a different judge Friday morning when he’s arraigned in a Central Islip courtroom.