A Brooklyn man who thought he was lucky after finding his stolen minivan intact the day after it was snatched last August got a rude awakening last week when the car was taken again – by the Sheriff’s Office.
And when the ill-fated father of three found out the deputies had his car towed, he was forced to go on a wild, four-borough crusade to get it back.
Robert Garcia, 46, told The Post that when he woke up Friday morning and found his 1995 Mercury Villager missing, he “thought they stole my car again.”
He went to the 75th Precinct in East New York – where he reported the first theft on Aug. 17 – and was told his car had been towed by the Office of the Sheriff.
But the car’s status was never updated in an inter-agency database, even though Garcia said he notified cops at the precinct he found his car on his own and they got him to sign paperwork to that effect.
After two quiet months, Garcia’s troubles were rekindled Thursday night, when a sheriff’s deputy randomly ran Garcia’s license plate and ordered it towed when he saw it listed as stolen.
“It was the craziest thing,” Garcia said. “It’s incredible how they put me through the ringer.
“One person didn’t know what the other was doing.”
A source at the sheriff’s office said the NYPD should have removed his car from the list.
But despite Garcia’s assertion that he signed the proper paperwork, the van was never taken off the stolen-vehicle list.
NYPD spokesman Capt. Jim Klein said the car was kept on the list until Thursday because “we have no documentation that [Garcia] came to the precinct with this car.
“There’s no documentation this car was ever recovered by the police,” Klein said.
Garcia stands by his story, and said his road to recovering his lost minivan took him through Queens, Brooklyn, Manhattan, The Bronx and back to Queens on a wild misinformation-filled Monday.
His first stop was the Office of the Sheriff in Jamaica, where he spent an entire day over the phone and in person, only to be redirected to the office in downtown Brooklyn.
He was then sent to the Manhattan office, which referred him to the Bronx Auto Theft Unit.
There he finally got the paperwork to reclaim his minivan.
“They were trying very hard not to give me my car back,” he said.
There he learned the car was being stored by Diamond Towing in College Point, Queens – which slapped Garcia with a $50 towing fee and another $40 for storage.
But Garcia knows it could have been worse.
“They could have arrested me or my son for driving a stolen vehicle,” he said. “We were lucky.”
AUTO ODYSSEY
Here is the timeline for Robert Garcia’s two-month, four-borough auto adventure:
Aug. 17 Robert Garcia reports his car stolen.
Aug. 18 He finds the car and signs forms at 75th Precinct to bring it home.
Oct. 24 Office of the Sheriff tows the car thinking it’s stolen.
Oct. 25 Garcia reports car as stolen, but finds out it’s in sheriff’s hands.
Oct. 28 Garcia leaves his home at 91 Grant Ave. in Brooklyn at 9 a.m. and goes to 144-06 94th Ave. in Jamaica, Queens. They send him to 210 Joralemon St. in Brooklyn. They send him to 253 Broadway in Manhattan. They send him to 332 E. 149th St. in The Bronx. Finally at 6 p.m. he picks up the minivan at 112-09 14th Ave. in College Point, Queens.