A Shootout & A Neighbor's Own Detective Work: The Saga Of A Car Stolen From Church Avenue

Jim Sullivan’s car in the 73rd Precinct lot. Photo courtesy Jim Sullivan

After neighbor Jim Sullivan’s car was stolen from its spot in front of Bobby’s Department Store on Church Avenue at the end of December, he wasn’t sure he’d ever see it again.

But, after much of his own detective work that involved tracking his EZ Pass and spending hours on the phone with the police and various city agencies, Jim finally tracked down his car – and discovered it had been involved in a drive-by shooting gone wrong in Brownsville, and the bullet-riddled vehicle was sitting in the 73rd Precinct.

Jim detailed the whole crazy saga for us, which began after he parked the car in front of Bobby’s, on the north side of Church Avenue, around 1:15am on December 30, 2014. When he returned at 7:30am the following day to go to work, Jim, who had just moved to the area, discovered it was missing.

Police originally told him the car had likely been towed, though there was no record of that, and, later that day, the 70th Precinct told the neighbor that it was probably stolen. After Jim met with police around 8:30pm on the day it went missing, they canvassed the area and an alert was sent out for his plate.

Additionally, the neighbor almost immediately spoke with the owner of Bobby’s Department Store with the hope that there would be surveillance video but was told there’s no security camera in front of the store – something which he said could have potentially made a huge difference in his entire plight.

After receiving a phone call from an officer the following week who said he was working the case, Jim didn’t hear anything more and decided to take matters into his own hands.

“I never cancelled my EZ Pass, thinking if someone drives through with it there’s at least a chance my car is still alive and not chopped up, unless they put the EZ Pass in another car,” Jim wrote to us.

Ultimately, it was this decision that led Jim to find his car.

The EZ Pass remained in his car, and Jim noticed on January 20 that it had been used for the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel twice on January 10. Immediately, the neighbor began to make phone calls to locate the vehicle.

“I called the police and different agencies, even talking to the security camera people for the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel,” Jim wrote. “I got nowhere for three hours on the phone. Then, I got a call half an hour later saying that the 73rd Precinct has had my car since January 14 and it was involved in a shooting.”

After that, he made numerous trips to the 73rd Precinct and discovered that his car had been involved in an apparent gang-related shootout in Brownsville and was found with no one in it, but still running, on a Brownsville street, Jim told us. Police let Jim know that they arrested the people who shot at Jim’s car, but apparently didn’t nab the people who had actually stolen his car. According to our neighbor, police said no one was hit during the shootout.

We had hoped to find out more about the specifics of the crime, and Jim was kind enough to connect us with the officer from the 73rd Precinct who was working with our neighbor on the case. That officer told us he couldn’t disclose anything more about the incident because of the NYPD’s press policy (which stipulates the media is supposed to go through a central communications department, DCPI). The 73rd Precinct did not return a request for comment, and we have also contacted DCPI for further information but have yet to hear back from them.

In Jim’s trunk, he discovered numerous items that didn’t belong to him – including a diploma, a flat-screen TV and family photos. Photo courtesy Jim Sullivan

Ultimately, Jim was able to retrieve his belongings from the car – where he found an entire box of mail and belongings that weren’t his, including a diploma. In his trunk, he also found family pictures, an old, small flat-screen TV, and a jacket.

“I asked the cop who this guy was; he had no idea,” Jim wrote of the diploma’s owner. “Maybe the detectives know, but I was never allowed to talk to them.”

To add to this whole insane story, after Jim finally located his car, he had to wait about a month before the police let him bring an insurance adjuster to the vehicle, which was labeled a complete loss.

Now, Jim has a new car – and all that’s left of this whole saga is a fight against a red light ticket he received after the vehicle was stolen.

Jim, here’s to hoping you’ll never have to deal with such a saga again!