Posted on: June 14, 2024 09:26 AM

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Nearly one hundred parked scooters seized by District Attorneys office and NYPD

Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz announced the seizure of 99 scooters parked illegally on the sidewalk and in the street in South Jamaica, South Ozone Park, South Richmond Hill, Corona, Elmhurst and Jackson Heights. One unregistered motorcycle and one unregistered dirt bike parked on a sidewalk were also confiscated.

The vast majority of the parked scooters removed were unregistered and uninsured. An additional five scooters were seized after their operators were stopped while driving including one operator at the intersection of 135th Avenue and 140th Street in South Ozone Park. The scooter was determined to have been reported stolen and the operator was apprehended at the scene.

District Attorney Katz said: “Illegal scooters have become a significant concern in our city, as we see them increasingly being used while carrying out violent crimes. They are also an affront to law-abiding New Yorkers who take the time to register, insure and maintain their vehicles on our roadways. In partnership with the NYPD, we have successfully removed more than 500 of these illegal vehicles from our streets, enhancing community safety. Our enforcement actions will continue.”

The crackdown is part of an ongoing joint operation involving the District Attorney’s Detective Bureau and local police precincts to address the persistent and increased use of scooters in crimes such as drive-by shootings and robberies.

A total of 515 scooters, two motorcycles and one dirt bike have been removed from Queens neighborhoods since the start of the joint operation in February.

Detectives from the District Attorney’s office, working with officers from the NYPD’s 106th, 110th, 113th and 115thPrecincts, searched numerous locations overnight on June 4, 5 6 and 11. Of the 104 scooters confiscated, 99 were unregistered and uninsured. Two scooters had an expired New York license plate and two were parked illegally with a valid New York license plate. The fifth scooter was reported stolen and its operator arrested.

The operation was conducted with members of the NYPD and the Queens District Attorney’s Detective Bureau, under the supervision of Sergeants Joseph Diehl and Agim Rugova, Lieutenant Joseph Falgiano, Senior Deputy Chief Janet Helgeson, Assistant Chief Daniel O’Brien, and under the overall supervision of Chief Investigator of the District Attorney’s Detective Bureau Robert C. LaPollo.
 

From Queens DA