A teen car thief turned a residential stretch of southern Brooklyn into a demolition derby Friday morning after cops spotted him in a stolen Mercedes Benz, police said.
An NYPD license plate scanner showed the stolen black Mercedes cruising at 9:11 a.m. within the 61st Precinct area, according to an NYPD spokesman.
Several hours later, cops spotted the stolen vehicle on E. 52nd St. near Ave H in the nearby 63rd Precinct, but the thief floored it after officers attempted a traffic stop.
With cops in pursuit, the thief sped south against traffic on one-way E. 52nd St., cops said, where he hit a Mercedes sedan, a black Jeep Grand Cherokee, and a silver Toyota Rav 4.
At E. 52nd St. and Ave I, he hit a grey Hyundai Kona and another Jeep Grand Cherokee, before abandoning the Benz and running away on foot, according to police and witnesses.
Officers managed to corner the suspect — a 17-year-old boy — on Ave. I near E. 54th St. at 11:49 p.m., cops said.
The suspect, whose name is being withheld due to his age, was charged with grand larceny, criminal possession of stolen propery and reckless endangerment, police said.
The owner of the stolen car, Staten Island resident Dalip Karpuzi, 70, told the Daily News he had parked his black 2020 Mercedes Benz near his brother’s Brooklyn home on Ocean Ave. near Ave. Y around 7 p.m. Thursday. He returned to the spot at 2 a.m. Friday to find his car gone.
“Around 2 o’clock we decide to go home and the car is not there,” Karpuzi said.
Karpuzi said he suspects the thief used scanner technology to clone the electronic signatures on his key fobs to gain access to the Benz.