Posted on 12/09/2007 1:24:33 PM PST by Dan Evans
He was trying to do a good deed - but ended up feeling like a common criminal.
Freelance photographer Carlos Alayo says he was late for a business meeting when he spotted a wallet lying abandoned on a subway platform bench.
He picked it up and put it in his bag, with every intention of later finding its owner, but as he rushed to board the 6 train last Wednesday at Grand Central, he felt a hand on his shoulder.
"Where's the wallet?" the undercover cop asked him.
Alayo, 32, is one of the latest New Yorkers ensnared in the NYPD's clampdown on thieves - known as Operation Lucky Bag.
After giving the officers the wallet, he was frisked, made to put his hands against the wall and hand over his identification so they could do a criminal history check.
"It wasn't even crossing my mind what was inside [the wallet]. I was trying to get to my appointment," Alayo said.
"It made me feel like I was a criminal, like I did something wrong. The look on [the cop's] face, it was like he already knew that I was arrested.
"He said, 'Don't lie to me, just tell me how many times you've been arrested.'
"That just stabbed me right there in the heart."
Alayo, who is from Peru, felt the eyes of all the rush-hour commuters on him as he was searched by officers.
"I was so ashamed, my face went red and people were looking," he said.
"God knows what they were thinking, a Spanish guy on the platform surrounded by cops. It made me feel very uneasy inside.
"I've been in this country 17 years and not felt discriminated against until that day," Alayo said.
The decoy operation involves planting shopping bags, purses, backpacks and wallets around the subway system, where unsuspecting passersby are watched to see how they react.
The plants used to be worth a few hundred dollars at most.
Now they contain real American Express Cards, issued under pseudonyms to the Police Department. Theft of a credit card is grand larceny, a Class E felony, so anyone cops believe has the intention of stealing the decoy wallet or bag could face up to four years behind bars.
"Even property which is lost or mislaid can be stolen," said NYPD Deputy Police Commissioner Paul Browne. "A person who takes or finds property which is lost or mislaid has a legal obligation to make efforts to return the property to its owner, which can include delivering the property to the police."
Last year, the NYPD's Transit Bureau arrested 101 individuals with prior arrest histories through the decoy program. Those 101 people had a combined total of 761 prior arrests, Browne said. On at least 178 other occasions, the bag left on the bench or seat was turned over to proper authorities.
Alayo says he has no criminal record - save for one summons several years ago for public urination. The cops let him go last week when they found no outstanding warrants - or reason to charge him.
The NYPD is under fire for targeting minorities for its stop-and-frisk policies, and the New York Civil Liberties Union believes Operation Lucky Bag needs to be abandoned.
"Policies like this are hellbent on stopping people from being good Samaritans," said Donna Lieberman, executive director of the New York Civil Liberties Union.
"A process like this is a pretext for racial profiling. I'm sure the NYPD has far more sophisticated tactics at their disposal than dropping wallets on the train."
What in the world is wrong with the NYPD?
Entrapment—pure and simple.
A police force that resorts to this sort of activity has too many officers. Personnel cuts are in order here.
Guess NYC is so thoroughly cleaned up that the cops have to create crimes. It’s a miracle!
Entrapment—pure and simple.
There must be a great deal that's bogus about this story. I find it hard to believe there are any cops in the US that are this stupid. In fact, it sounds more like a sting operation to identify stupid cops.
I'd like to know what the real story is.
He urinated in public so I wouldn’t want the wallet back.
There is that.
Always suspect being lied to whenever a journo is saying something about anything.
The guy did exactly what I’d have done.
I would not have left the wallet for some thief.
Regardless of who’s telling the whole truth, the message I get is that if I’m in New York and I see a wallet on the ground, I should avoid touching it.
This is interesting. I think I ran across a similar scenario at the Philadelphia airport recently.
We got back from a flight and I was waiting outside for my husband to bring the luggage out. There was a nice looking backpack sitting all by itself on a bench. I asked the lady next to me if it was hers, she said,’No’. I said to her, looks like a seriously unattended backpack to me. I immediately went to talk to the cop who was directing traffic in front of the baggage pickup. I got his attention, and told him that there was an unattended backpack on the bench. He told me he knew about it and it was ok.
I went back to the original lady and asked her if she knew when an unattended backpack becomes a suspicious backpack.
20 minutes later as we were leaving on the shuttle bus to the parking lot, the backpack was still there.
The guy has 10 days to find owner or turn it in by law. Police in wormy apple don’t know the law?
Uh, Operation Lucky Bag and the fact he wasn’t charged lead me to believe there is nothing else.
You don’t believe cops are stupid? LOL Seriously?
It’s pretty clear. They are leaving wallets out in the open and then stopping people. Not only is that entrapment, it’s creating problems where there weren’t any. Why not leave a bag next to an undercover to see if anyone reaches in or grabs the bag, rather than just leave a wallet around.
Sounds to me like they were fishing for people w/ outstanding warrants—not that this makes it OK by any stretch.
Ditto.
This is the relevant section. If the guy has an outstanding warrant, they book him. If he doesn't, and is an occasional criminal, he now knows that the cops are keeping an eye out for people like him. If he's innocent, he gets a few looks from other passengers, nothing more. The fact is that he could have turned this in at a token booth, which is a two minute walk away from most subway platforms.
This is a complete abuse of power, not to mention contrary to civil law. Personal property law says possession gives the possessor better title, in the eyes of the law, than anyone except the actual owner.
It is not theft to pick up lost or abandoned property. Whatever attorney approved this entrapment scam should have his/her license to practice revoked until they receive a passing grade in a personal property law course.
The individual in this story should be suing the NYPD for false arrest.
You are right on target! I couldn’t believe how stupid this ‘sting operation’ was! Are honest people now required to ignore any lost items lying on the ground? And just who the hell is the NYPD to decide what good citizens should do with lost items? Frankly, citizens would be wiser to put an ad in the paper than to turn the item in to the NYPD, especially if it’s money.
He picked it up and put it in his bag, with every intention of later finding its owner,
The road to hell (or jail) is paved with good intentions.
welcome to the world of COMPSTAT. the brass and the lawyers sit in rooms thinking of operations like this in order to get felony arrests. this happens a ton! not just subway. bars, nightclubs, stores, etc...
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