Dec. 24, 2015 Staff Report
An East Elmhurst man has been charged in four separate incidents of swiping packages from Queens doorsteps in one afternoon.
The 26-year-old Astoria Boulevard resident, Frank Garcia, allegedly walked down 47th Street Tuesday afternoon removing packages that had been delivered to doorsteps and placing them in a pushcart, according to Queens District Attorney Richard Brown. The charges state that police recovered the cart and found an assortment of packages containing curtains, lotion bottles, a purse and a Bluetooth speaker, among others, Brown said.
At the time of his arrest, Garcia allegedly stated to police that he took the packages because he was out of work and it is Christmas season.
He faces up to a year in jail.
“When people place mail orders, they do not expect their delivered packages to be brazenly stolen off their doorstep by somebody acting like the Dr. Seuss’ character in the book ‘How The Grinch Stole Christmas,” as the defendant is accused of doing in this case,’ Brown said in a statement.