Suffolk police commissioner is victim of theft

A thief - either uninformed or with a taste for risk - broke a window of a late-model SUV earlier this month and made off with a global-positioning device.

The truck's driver: Suffolk County's top cop, Police Commissioner Richard Dormer.

Dormer's county-owned GMC truck was parked in Dormer's driveway in Northport on the night of March 15 when someone smashed the driver's side window some time before morning and made off with a GPS.

Dormer reported the crime on March 17, according to a department spokeswoman.

Dormer said last week that he informed someone at headquarters about the larceny one or two days after the incident, and that person then reported the crime.

A department spokesman said the value of the window was less than $250, and that the county-owned GPS was valued at around $300.

The theft is being handled as a misdemeanor.

The state penal law stipulates that a person is guilty of a felony larceny when he or she steals property valued at more than $1000 or commits felony criminal mischief when causing property damage exceeding $250.

"It was reported properly," said Dormer last week.