Bayside NYPD Captain Nabs 3 Car Thieves During Neighborhood Jog

BAYSIDE, QUEENS — An off-duty Bayside police captain's weekend jog led to the arrest of three car thieves, according to police and news reports.

NYPD Captain John Hall, who leads the 111th Precinct in Bayside, was out for a run Saturday when he saw a car that looked like one that had recently been reported stolen, the department said.

Parked by Bayside Marina, the Mercedes Benz SUV seemed to have the same license plate number as the one listed in the police report Hall had reviewed, he told the New York Daily News.

2 stolen & stolen s, all while out for a run on a day off!@NYPD111Pct Captain Hall was jogging when he saw a car that looked a lot like one that was stolen recently, & even had the same plate number A quick call to his cops led to 2 stolen cars & credit cards recovered! pic.twitter.com/OehpNXCPhE
— NYPD NEWS (@NYPDnews) September 21, 2019

Hall called his officers to the scene, where they arrested three men who were sleeping in the car and in another SUV nearby, which had been stolen from Nassau County, according to the Daily News.

The cops also found several stolen credit cards on the trio, and Hall told the news outlet he believes the men are involved in "a bit more."

The NYPD touted the happenstance arrests on social media.

"Every precinct commander lives and breathes his precinct," Hall told the Daily News. "We’ve been hit hard with car break-ins and a couple of vehicle thefts, and so I was definitely keyed into the problem. It was something on the forefront of my mind right now."