Right from their doorsteps, their packages he grabbed; but then the cops came, and soon he was nabbed.
A real life version of “How the Grinch Stole Christmas” played out on an East Elmhurst street on Tuesday, according to Queens District Attorney Richard A. Brown.
Frank Garcia, 26, of Astoria Boulevard was caught walking down 47th Street on Tuesday afternoon removing packages from door steps that had been delivered by mail men and placing them in a blue push cart.
When police reviewed surveillance video footage of Garcia walking into his apartment lobby, they saw him enter the building with the push cart that contained several packages.
Police allegedly recovered the cart and found several packages containing 10 curtains, two bottles of lotion, one pair of pants, a purse, a Bluetooth speaker and a bottle of soap. Garcia allegedly told police that he took the packages because he was unemployed and it was christmas.
“When people place mail orders, they do not expect their delivered packages to be brazenly stolen off their doorstep by somebody acting like the Dr. Seuss’ character in the book, ‘How The Grinch Stole Christmas,’ as the defendant is accused of doing in this case – even though he had no way of knowing what the packages contained,” Brown said. “What the defendant now knows is that he faces the prospect of being incarcerated for his alleged actions.”
Garcia is charged with four counts of petit larceny and four counts of fifth-degree criminal possession of stolen property. If convicted, Garcia faces up to one year in jail.
