Police Quickly Make Arrest After Cars Get Vandalized In Williamsburg

Police in Brooklyn made a quick arrest Sunday in the case of vandalized cars and stolen license plates.

As CBS2’s Dave Carlin reported, a tip led officers right to a suspect.

Resident Joel Gee’s home security video captured images of a man in a blue hat appearing to take license plates off cars on Penn Street in Williamsburg on Sunday morning April 22 2018. Gee made sure to show it to everyone he could think of, including his local Shomrim, the Jewish Civilian Patrol.“It’s on the camera. You see everything,” Gee said. “Some people just like to terrorize someone else.”

The community mobilizing clearly worked.

Officers later showed up with the sets of plates for six cars in their hands, delivering them back to the block and to some very grateful owners.

This story had a happy ending because of that video and a tip from one eagle-eyed neighborhood Shomrim volunteer who did not want to be identified.

“They found all the license plates from all the cars and we’re working now to put them back,” Williamsburg resident Kalman Weiss said.

Police made an arrest on nearby Bedford Street. They identified the suspect as Able Estevez, charging him with larceny and tools for burglaries. The stolen plates — some of them badly bent — were rescued from a nearby trash can.

Residents grabbed screwdrivers and police officers offered assistance.

“I don’t have to go down to the motor vehicles and pay another $170 for the license plates,” Weiss said.

But insurance claims will pour in. Police said the same suspect is responsible for more damage with a sharp object as he walked up the block alongside the cars.

When shown the surveillance video, some residents on the block said the suspect is a man they said had been living in a car for about a week, Carlin reported. They hope he does not return, after this case of crimes committed, clues uncovered and a suspect arrested all happened within within a few short hours.

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