LI BRIEFS

OLD WESTBURY/Police say civilian Amtrak worker claimed he was cop

The Nassau Police Department's Highway Patrol has arrested a Staten Island man for allegedly impersonating an Amtrak police officer during a traffic stop in Old Westbury.

The suspect, Conrad Cassanova, 43, of Circle Loop Drive, is actually an Amtrak mechanic, police said.

A Highway Patrol officer pulled Cassanova's 2002 BMW over at 10:30 p.m. Friday on the westbound Long Island Expressway near Glen Cove Road after he swerved out of his lane and crossed over pavement markings.

Cassanova told the officer he was a cop and turned over a badge and Amtrak identification, neither of which validated his law enforcement credentials, police said. The Nassau officer eventually called Amtrak and determined that Cassanova is a civilian employee. Nonetheless, the suspect continued to insist he was an Amtrak police officer, police said.

Cassanova is charged with criminal impersonation and failure to use a designated lane of traffic. He was to be arraigned in First District Court in Hempstead Saturday.

-- ROBERT BRODSKY

WEST HEMPSTEAD/Woman accused of making up story about abduction

An East Meadow woman told police that she was abducted by three black men, robbed of her money and dumped off in West Hempstead. But Nassau police now say the story was a total fabrication.

Carmina Cornejo, 32, of First Avenue, was arrested Friday and charged with grand larceny, falsely reporting an incident to police and providing a false written statement.

Cornejo, who works at Euro Concessions outside the Home Depot on Fulton Avenue in Hempstead, told police that she finished her shift shortly after 7 p.m. and was walking back to her car when she was approached by three men in a four-door Honda with out-of-state license plates.

She claimed the men pulled her into their car, drove west on Hempstead Turnpike and stole her cash and passport. The men then allegedly dropped her off at a location in West Hempstead.

But detectives said her story fell apart when she gave inconsistent accounts of the robbery to Nassau and Hempstead police officers.

Nassau police later found more than $1,000 in her car from three days of concession sales that she was allegedly planning to keep for herself.

Cornejo was to be arraigned in First District Court in Hempstead Saturday.

-- ROBERT BRODSKY

MASSAPEQUA/At least 7 cars or homes vandalized in less than a day

At least seven cars or homes in Massapequa and Massapequa Park were vandalized in a one-day stretch last week, Nassau police said.

The numerous reports of criminal mischief occurred between Thursday at 11 a.m. and Friday, at 9:50 a.m., police said.

Among the incidents were the breaking of the driver's side window on a 2011 Chevrolet parked on Francine Avenue and the smashing of the dining room window of a home on Park Lane.

-- ROBERT BRODSKY