Tow truck thief still not caught by New York police

Police have yet to arrest the driver of the van who was seen on video stealing a tow truck as the driver tried to remove his vehicle, damaging several cars parked on the street and even sending one person to the hospital with minor injuries.

The incident was detected not by one, not by two, but three angles.

“Nobody’s taking this truck from me,” the driver of the black Chevrolet shouted during Friday’s incident in Sunset Park. “Put the fucking truck down, I’m warning you.”

The muscular pickup driver then decided to take matters into his own hands by jumping into the tow truck and driving away. But the move backfired, as the driver wrecked several cars as he fled. He even wrecked his own, which fell off the tow truck because the driver couldn’t finish securing it before the tow truck was hijacked.

Videos and photos of the incident have been circulating on social media, and investigators can clearly see the license plate of the towed car. In fact, the sheriff and the New York police know the owner, as they towed it and gave him a ticket. However, the New York police have yet to arrest the truck thief, who eventually abandoned the vehicles and fled on foot.

The NYPD press office told Streetsblog that there have been no developments since the incident, but said the fleeing maniac hit a car that someone was in — and that person ended up at nearby NYU Langone Medical Center with minor injuries.

The lack of arrest is astonishing, given that the towed truck has a long history of violations: its driver has 13 speed camera violations in a school zone, as well as several parking tickets. It owes $1,313.95 in fines and was towed by the city sheriff because it has more than $350 in unpaid tickets pending adjudication.

But these are apparently not the only debts this driver has.

The original POV video of the tow truck comes from a TikTok account called @repodaddy82caddy; although the video has been deleted, it appears that the driver had his car repossessed by his bank for not paying for it. The videos show the tow truck driver wearing a t-shirt for “INFAMOUZ NYC,” a low-rider club based in Queens. DCPI did not disclose information about the repossession company.

A video, made by a police officer who posts reaction videos to similarly popular crimes, has been viewed more than three million times.

“My brother just went from a few hundred dollars in fines to seven counts of hit and run, theft and possibly carjacking. Good luck with that,” the officer notes.

@repodaddy86caddy has other videos on his TikTok account, one of them even includes a catchy original song.