NYPD OOPS!
Cop leaves keys in car, thief has smashing time
A cop left the keys in his cruiser right outside a Bronx station house yesterday — and it was promptly swiped by a thief who proceeded to crash it into four parked vehicles.
Dude, where’s my patrol car? A bumbling Bronx cop left the key to an NYPD cruiser in the ignition Sunday morning — letting a car thief swipe it from right outside the 50th Precinct station house in Kingsbridge.
The crook peeled off for a 25-minute joyride, zigzagging through the streets for more than a mile until he smashed the marked squad car into four parked vehicles in University Heights, according to police. No one was injured.
The thief coolly strolled away from the crash before hopping into a black Lincoln Town Car, cops said.
The unidentified bandit, described as Hispanic and wearing a gray hoodie and black jacket, made his getaway in the black car heading west on Fordham Road, according to law-enforcement sources.
“It’s PD 101: Don’t leave the keys in the car,’’ a high-ranking police source griped of the cop’s boneheaded move. “It’s just like losing your gun — failure to safeguard.”
Officers at the 50th Precinct also expressed frustration over the theft, which came just days after Mayor de Blasio and NYPD Commissioner James O’Neill denounced the fatal police shooting of a batwielding, mentally ill woman in her Bronx apartment.
“We are under fire from all sides, so we don’t need a knucklehead move like this,” one cop grumbled. “Just makes us look bad.”
The incident unfolded at around 6:20 a.m., when the thief swiped the cruiser from a parking lot outside the station house at 3450 Kingsbridge Ave.
It was noticed missing within minutes but wasn’t found until about 6:45 a.m. — outside 2304 Sedgwick Ave., with its front end crumpled into a silver BMW and darkgreen Jeep Cherokee.
The cop who had left the key in the ignition violated the NYPD’s own theft-prevention advice for civilians, which was outlined in a flier posted online last year.
“Never leave the keys when you exit the vehicle — even for a minute!” the flier warns.
The high-ranking police source said the cop “will definitely be modified” — the official term for being stripped of his badge and gun pending disciplinary proceedings.
James Mahadeo, whose red Lincoln SUV was sideswiped and pushed onto the sidewalk, was outraged.
“The police are the ones responsible for this accident,” he fumed.
Nothing was taken from inside the cruiser, according to the NYPD.