An off-duty Bayside police captain’s jog resulted in the arrest of three car thieves this weekend.
On Sept. 21, Captain John Hall of the 111th Precinct was out taking a jog on Joe Michael’s Mile by the Bayside Marina when he saw a license plate that looked familiar.
“I recognized the plate from the car that was stolen in Bayside the day earlier: I saw a white Mercedes parked in the lot at the marina, looked at the plate, and recognized it. That’s when I called my precinct and told them to send some units over,” Hall said.
According to The Daily News, multiple officers responded to the scene and found three men sleeping in the Mercedes, which the trio allegedly stole from the vicinity of 53rd Avenue and 208th Street on Sept. 20. Police also found a stolen SUV nearby which was reportedly from Nassau County.
A Tweet from the 111th Precinct Twitter confirmed that the robbers also were in possession of stolen credit cards.
2 stolen ? & stolen ?s, all while out for a run on a day off!@NYPD111Pct Captain Hall was jogging when he saw a car that looked a lot like one that was stolen recently, & even had the same plate number ? A quick call to his cops led to 2 stolen cars & credit cards recovered! pic.twitter.com/OehpNXCPhE
— NYPD NEWS (@NYPDnews) September 21, 2019
Cops arrested three Queens residents — 18-year-old Jorge Alvarez and 21-year-old Matthew Garcia of Corona and 19-year-old Adrian Gonzalez of Fresh Meadows — and charged them with grand larceny auto, criminal possession of stolen property and resisting arrest.
Police also charged Gonzalez and Garcia with criminal possession of stolen property in reference to stolen credit cards from victims in Nassau County and the 111th Precinct, respectively.
Hall confirmed that the investigation is ongoing.
The 15-year NYPD veteran became the 111th Precinct captain in March 2018. Prior to commanding the northeast Queens precinct, Hall served as an officer in West Harlem, a narcotic’s detective in Manhattan South, a sergeant in the Bronx and special projects lieutenant in Chinatown.
