10/23/16 New York City, NY – NYPD Patrol Car Swiped From In Front Of Police Station – 1 Mile Zig Zag In Heavy Traffic – Crashes Into Four Cars – Suspect Escaped

October 23, 2016

nypost.com

Dude, where’s my patrol car?

A bumbling Bronx cop left the key to an NYPD cruiser in the ignition Sunday morning — letting a car thief swipe it from right outside the 50th Precinct station house in Kingsbridge.

The crook then peeled off for a 25-minute joyride, zigzagging through the streets for more than a mile until he smashed the marked squad car into four parked vehicles in University Heights, according to police. No one was injured.

The thief then coolly strolled away from the crash before hopping into a black Lincoln Town Car, cops said.

The unidentified suspect, described as Hispanic and wearing a gray hoodie and black jacket, made his getaway in the black car heading west on Fordham Road, according to law-enforcement sources.

“It’s PD 101: Don’t leave the keys in the car,’’ a high-ranking police source griped of the officer’s bone-headed move. “It’s just like losing your gun — failure to safeguard.”

Officers at the 50th Precinct also expressed frustration over the theft, which came just days after Mayor de Blasio and NYPD Commissioner James O’Neill denounced the fatal police shooting of a bat-wielding, mentally ill woman in her Bronx apartment.

“We are under fire from all sides, so we don’t need a knucklehead move like this,” one cop grumbled. “Just makes us look bad.”

The incident unfolded around 6:20 a.m., when the suspect swiped the cruiser from a parking lot outside the station house at 3450 Kingsbridge Ave.

It was noticed missing within minutes but wasn’t found until about 6:45 a.m. — outside 2304 Sedgwick Ave., with its front end crumpled head-on into a silver BMW and dark-green Jeep Cherokee.

The cop who had left the key in the ignition violated the NYPD’s own theft-prevention advice for civilians, which was outlined in a flier posted online last year.

“Never leave the keys when you exit the vehicle — even for a minute!” the document warns.

The high-ranking police source said the cop “will definitely be modified” — the official term for being stripped of his badge and gun pending disciplinary proceedings.

James Mahadeo, whose red Lincoln SUV was sideswiped and pushed onto the sidewalk, was outraged. “The police are the ones responsible for this accident,” he fumed.

Nothing was taken from inside the cruiser, according to the NYPD.