NEW YORK COMPUTERS STOLEN Man charged in New Hyde Park crime spree -- Newsday.com

Man charged in New Hyde Park crime spree

BY JOSEPH MALLIA |joseph.mallia@newsday.com

9:28 AM EDT, July 15, 2008

After a series of criminal blunders in New Hyde Park on Monday, a suspect was arrested and charged with stealing a car, breaking into a store and leaving the scene of an accident, Nassau police said.

Robert Sewell, 27, stole a car from a Hillside Avenue deli at 8:06 a.m. after the car's owner left the keys in the ignition, police said.

But Sewell didn't make his getaway in time, police said, as the car's owner spotted him driving off and called 911.

Then Sewell drove the stolen car down the street to Smart Brain America, at 1614 Hillside Ave., where he loaded the stolen car with bags of electronic loot he'd stolen in an earlier burglary, police said.

A witness saw him hauling the bags of cell phones, laptop computers, an LCD television, a personal digital assistant and a camera, police said.

This witness, too, called 911.

Sewell drove away but soon got into what the police called "a one-car auto accident damaging private property" at New Hyde Park Road and Jericho Turnpike.

Sewell ran off. He left behind the stolen car and stolen electronics, police said.

It was 9:08 a.m. when officers caught him behind 25 South 16th St. in New Hyde Park, and they found the stolen items in the stolen car at the scene of Sewell's accident, police said.

Sewell, 27, of 88 Hemlock Dr., Farmingdale, was charged with grand larceny, burglary, unlawful fleeing of a police officer, aggravated unlicensed operation of a vehicle, unsafe backing on a roadway, failure to stop at a stop sign and failing to report the accident.

He faces arraignment Tuesday, in First District Court, Hempstead.