Tow truck driver helps cops nab thieves

From the Daily News:

A hero tow truck driver helped bust a crew of car thieves this week when he followed a stolen vehicle across two boroughs and pointed the suspects out to police.

Cops said the bandits may be responsible for as many as eight other car heists, cops said.

Vinnie Lanzieri, 44, was driving his Performance Automotive tow truck in Queens about midnight Wednesday when he heard on his police scanner that a 38-year-old man had been held up at gunpoint and pulled out of his 2008 Cadillac Escalade in Rego Park, he said.

Moments later, Lanzieri spotted the stolen SUV at a red light at Woodhaven and Yellowstone Blvds. in Forest Hills.

The stolen vehicle made a dash to the Jackie Robinson Parkway with a Blazer following close behind, Lanzieri said.

"They were flying down it," Lanzieri said, adding that the thugs soon dumped the stolen SUV on a dead-end street off Pennsylvania Ave. in East New York, Brooklyn, and began to flee in the second vehicle. Lanzieri saw a marked squad car from Transit District 33 nearby and flagged down the officers, he said.

"I told them what happened," Lanzieri said. "The two cops took them out at gunpoint and had them on the floor in 30 seconds."