A man armed with a pellet gun allegedly carjacked three vehicles within an hour in Long Island City Thursday morning and managed to evade police for most of the day after his 9:30 to 10:30 a.m. mini-spree. The New York Times described a “bizarre and frantic series of crimes” in which, police said, the suspect, Nicolas Almonte, first hijacked a woman’s Mercedes with her in it near the Queens-Midtown Tunnel, drove her around the neighborhood, then ditched the car when she got out near Queens Plaza. He then hijacked a Lexus, drove that for five minutes, robbed a truck driver of some cash (but not his truck), and stole a Mercedes. Cops finally caught up with him around 6 p.m. in Greenpoint, “when someone called police to report a suspicious man,” NBC New York reports. That never would have happened in Grand Theft Auto.
