An MTA track worker in New York City, is suing NYPD for $1 million after he was arrested for “stealing” his own vehicle, the New York Daily News reported Tuesday.
Jamieson Prince’s car was confiscated in July by NYPD after his son crashed the vehicle and fled the scene. When Prince went to the 28th precinct stationhouse to retrieve his GMC Yukon after the car accident, the police said it had been stolen from the precinct.
It’s unknown how the vehicle mysteriously vanished, but Prince’s lawyer Neil Wollerstein suspects that an unscrupulous police employee may have misused the SUV, resulting in its disappearance.
“You can’t lose a 5-ton truck,” Wollerstein said. “Either they’re completely incompetent or someone was up to no good.”
In a strange turn of events, Prince walked by the station house four months after the accident and the subsequent disappearance of his vehicle, and noticed his Yukon parked three blocks away from the entrance. Assuming the police no longer needed the vehicle for the investigation, he drove it home.
A week later, Prince was arrested for stealing the car, even after he provided paperwork proof that he was the owner.
“How can the NYPD just confiscate property, lose it, then arrest you for possessing it?” Prince said. “It’s totally wrong. I want an apology.”
He wants more than an apology, though. He wants $1 million. Although the charges were dropped on January 12, Prince wants NYPD to take responsibility for losing his vehicle, and then arresting him after he reclaimed his property.
“This has turned my world upside down,” Prince said.