Cops nab suspect in Bay Ridge car break-in

Talk about timing!

On the evening of Wednesday, September 21, just hours after residents showed up at the monthly meeting of the 68^th Precinct Community Council to report car break-ins in Bay Ridge, cops from the precinct collared a man who, they say, was caught with approximately $3,000 worth of stolen property allegedly removed from a car parked in the vicinity of Shore Road and 81^st Street.

Captain Joseph Hayward, the precinct’s commanding officer, said that, after hearing the complaints, he deployed his conditions team to the area, where, within two hours, they had made “a grand larceny arrest in a car break-in.

“Basically,” Hayward recounted, “the cops saw the perp walking with the stolen goods in a suitcase. They recognized him from prior incidents, and searched the area till they found a car that had been gone through. Then, they got in touch with the car’s owner by running the plates.”

After the car’s owner identified the items that the suspect was carrying as belonging to him, the suspect was charged with grand larceny and criminal possession of stolen property, Hayward said.

Earlier in the evening, one woman had brought to Hayward’s attention that cars in the area of Colonial Road and 76^th Street were “being opened and rifled through,” though, she admitted, generally, the cars’ owners don’t bother to make a police report.

“We think it’s relatively minor,” she said, but added that she was motivated to attend the meeting and speak out after “seeing other people posting on Facebook about the same thing going on.”

According to Hayward, it’s not uncommon for individuals looking to make a quick grab of someone else’s property to try door handles on cars, up and down a block. “We call it car surfing,” he told the group gathered at the station house, 333 65^th Street. “We definitely want you to call when you see them trying door handles,” he stressed.

If your car has been rifled through, even if nothing was taken and it’s the next day, Hayward urges that you report the incident.