GPS Helps New N.Y. Officers Track Down Minivan Thief

Dec. 28, 2011

The woman called her employer and owner of the van, Nassau AHRC, a nonprofit that helps people with developmental disabilities, which notified the GPS tracking company, police said.

A GPS tracking device helped police find a minivan stolen in Bethpage and taken to Bohemia, leading to the arrest of the man who took it, Nassau County police said.

Louis Diaz, 57, of Port Jefferson Station, stole a 2009 Honda Odyssey minivan Tuesday from a Pathmark parking lot, 3901 Hempstead Tpke., Bethpage, police said in a Wednesday news release.

The vehicle's driver, a 41-year-old woman, had been in the store shopping, police said, when she realized she didn't have her keys and checked the parking lot, only to find the minivan missing.

The woman called her employer and owner of the van, Nassau AHRC, a nonprofit that helps people with developmental disabilities, which notified the GPS tracking company, police said. The tracking company pinpointed the location of the van and informed Nassau AHRC, which passed the information on to Nassau police, a police spokeswoman said.

Because the van was located in Suffolk County, Nassau police notified Suffolk police, who assisted in finding Diaz and the vehicle in Bohemia at 1:30 p.m. Tuesday, the Nassau police spokeswoman said.

Diaz was charged with fourth-degree grand larceny and is scheduled to be arraigned Wednesday in First District Court in Hempstead

McClatchy-Tribune News Service