07/28/17  New York City, NY – NYPD Police Car Stolen By Man On Drugs – Police Car Was At A Traffic Stop – Suspect Captured 3 Miles Away

July 28, 2017

patch.com

A North Carolina man is facing charges for stealing a police car on the Upper West Side and taking it for a three-mile joyride up Amsterdam Avenue early Thursday morning, police told Patch.

Joseph Pinkcett, 26, snuck into an unlocked and unattended cruiser on the corner of West 85th Street and Amsterdam Avenue around 1:25 a.m. while officers conducted a traffic stop nearby, police said. With the keys still in the car, Pinkcett was able to drive in reverse down West 85th Street and head up Amsterdam Avenue.

The joyrider was stopped on Amsterdam Avenue and West 135th Street in Harlem — just more than three miles from the site of the theft — and was arrested, police said.

Police said Pinkcett, who hails from Winston Salem, North Carolina, was on drugs when he stole the car.

Pinkcett was charged with grand larceny, reckless endangerment, unauthorized use of a vehicle, criminal possession of stolen property, DWI and operating a motor vehicle impaired by drugs, police told Patch.