Army vet ROTC teacher gets carjacked as auto theft continues to climb

 NY Post

Six armed bandits carjacked a veteran teacher outside a Queens high school, pistol-whipping the educator in front of his family and taking off with his BMW and $7,000, cops said.

Christopher Dash was smacked in the head with a gun during the terrifying 5:30 a.m. heist on Jan. 11 outside Francis Lewis High School in Fresh Meadows – one in a recent series of luxury carjackings in Queens.

Dash, 59, was sitting with his wife and 18-year-old son in their car in a lot behind Horace Harding Expressway next to the school when two Dodge sedans approached and blocked them from leaving, cops said.

Five males and a female got out and brandished weapons while demanding the keys and belongings, the NYPD said.

As Dash, his wife, and son got out of the car, the thieves “forcibly removed” their wallets, taking  $7,000 in cash, a cell phone, ID, debit cards, and laptops. Cops did not know why he was carrying that large a sum of money.

One crook hit Dash in the head with a gun, causing a laceration, police said.

 

Off-duty rookie cop shot during carjacking attempt by Arverne By The Sea

 

Eyewitness News  

 An off-duty NYPD police officer was shot and wounded during an attempted carjacking as he drove to work in the Arverne section of Queens last night.

The 22-year-old rookie was shot at the intersection of Beach Channel Drive and Beach 62nd Street at around 10:20 p.m. Tuesday.

Two men tapped on his window of his personal vehicle with a gun. The officer got out, and one of the men fired several shots, striking him in the shoulder.

The off-duty officer returned fire as the suspects ran away.

Responding officers rushed the shot man to Jamaica Hospital, where he was in stable condition and expected to recover.

When other officers from the nearby precinct caught up with the suspects three blocks away on Beach Channel Drive, one of the suspects fired a shot at them.

Carjacker foiled by petite woman

From the NY Post:

Anne Justima, 31, of Jackson Heights, was heading home at around 7:15 p.m. with her husband, Peter, 33, after working on their new restaurant, Tiny Thai, when a knife-wielding lug lumbered up to their black Volkswagen on Madison Avenue between East 71st and East 72nd streets.

"We stopped at the light, and he came right over," Peter recalled. "He was 6-foot, thin."

"Get out of the car!" the crook barked at Anne, who stands 5-foot-3 on her tiptoes.

The creep then forced down the window on the driver's side -- and stuck his long arm in the car.

"He used a knife to cut my hand" and then swiped Anne's iPhone, she said.

Things went from ugly to ridiculous by the time the light changed, the couple recalled -- and the would-be carjacker's luck ran out.

"I said, 'I'm OK -- I'm going to get out of the car, ' " Anne recalled, her hand stinging from the knife wound.

"She kicked him," her proud spouse reported.

But the best revenge was yet to come.

"I'm small -- he cannot fit in my car," she said.

"And I don't think he could drive the stick shift!"

So, stolen iPhone in hand and his tail between his legs, the driving-challenged car thief took off on foot.