Cops: BMW thief in Hamptons caught with victim’s help
It was a case of grand theft auto.
And it all ended faster than a video game for a Hampton Bays man, as a quick-thinking victim and fast-acting police foiled the alleged car thief Sunday in Hampton Bays, leading to the recovery of a stolen BMW not long after it was taken.
Southampton Town police said the theft was reported in a 911 call at 9:15 p.m., a Hampton Bays woman calling to report she’d heard a car door close then looked outside to see her 2015 BMW gone.
Police said the woman quickly provided her license plate information and Southampton Patrol Division and Community Response Unit officers, as well as State Police troopers, soon spotted the car eastbound on Sunrise Highway.
A traffic stop was initiated, the car recovered.
And police arrested the driver, Franco Carrera-Perez, 24, of Hampton Bays, charging him with third-degree grand larceny, third-degree criminal possession of stolen property, and also with driving while intoxicated.
Police said Carrera-Perez was arraigned Monday and was remanded to Suffolk County Jail in lieu of $25,000 bail.
John Valenti, a reporter at Newsday since 1981, has been honored nationally by the Associated Press and Society of the Silurians for investigative, enterprise and breaking news reporting, as well as column writing, and is the author of “Swee'pea,” a book about former New York playground basketball star Lloyd Daniels. Valenti is featured in the Emmy Award-winning ESPN 30-for-30 film “Big Shot.”
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