LI CRIME BRIEFS

NORTH MERRICK / Cops: Car thief spurs chase

A Roosevelt man allegedly ditched a stolen car and then a stolen bicycle before Nassau County police caught him trying to hide at a North Merrick home, First Squad detectives said Tuesday.

Officers in a patrol car with a license-plate reader saw a stolen car on Lakeside Avenue in North Merrick about 3:29 p.m. Monday, police said. They followed the car and noticed several traffic violations before pulling it over near Camp Avenue and Meadowbrook Road. The driver, Ahmad T. Raye, 19, of Bainbridge Street, ran away and officers followed, police said.

Raye took a bike from a yard and pedaled down Washington Avenue, police said. He left the bike, ran along Meadowbrook State Parkway and then entered a home on Sumner Avenue, where he was arrested by police.

He is charged with burglary, possession of stolen property, petty larceny and several vehicle and traffic violations.

-- GARY DYMSKI

NASSAU COUNTY / Cops: $50G in credit scam

A Brooklyn woman was arrested Tuesday and charged with using phony credit cards to purchase about $50,000 in department store gift cards over the past year, Nassau police said.

Lavonne Harper, 32, of 2015 Union St., was charged with second degree grand larceny and second degree possession of a forged instrument.

Harper used re-encoded credit cards to purchase gift cards at several stores in Nassau County, including TJ Maxx on Sunrise Highway, Freeport, beginning in April 2010, detectives said. She would then sell the gift cards, police said. She was tracked down with the help of store surveillance videos.

-- BILL MASON