This crook didn’t know how to cover his tracks.
Police arrested a 20-year-old man who broke into a vehicle in Midwood during the snowstorm on Jan. 27 and made it easy for authorities to track him down by leaving his footprints at the scene of the crime.
A police spokeswoman said the perp broke into a vehicle on E. 24th Street near Avenue N at 3:30 am. A resident who saw him commit the crime called the Flatbush Shomrim Safety Patrol, a volunteer neighborhood watch group. The executive coordinator of the Shomrim said two of the group’s volunteers arrived after the suspect fled, but were able to follow his frozen footprints — which led them to different, red-hot crime scene.
“It was pretty easy for them to use their smarts and start following footprints,” said coordinator Bob Moskovitz, adding that the duo saw the suspect break into another vehicle when they finally found him almost a mile away. “They began to observe him. He was going in and out of driveways again.”
Moskovitz said the neighborhood watchmen didn’t confront the suspect, but rather alerted to cops.
“We used the best and only weapon which we have — we used our finger and called 911,” he said.
Officers picked up the perp in short order, and he was charged with unauthorized use of a vehicle without the owner’s consent, according to a spokesman for the police.
Later that morning, the 70th Precinct tweeted some free advice for would-be thieves hoping to avoid the cooler:
“Rule #1 dont break into cars during snow storm leaving your tracks.”
