A MAN who works as a repossession agent was arrested after attempting to do his job and repossess a vehicle belonging to a police office.
The tow truck driver insisted the arrest never should have happened and after four months, saw all charges dropped.
Jose Rodriguez was working as a repossession agent in New York City in May 2019 when the job landed him in jail.
He told NY1 at the time that he had been sent to tow a Nissan Maxima that was being repossessed by the bank due to three missed payments.
He found the vehicle near the 120th Precinct station house.
After logging the car into his system and lifting it onto his tow truck, Rodriguez claimed he was stopped by police.
“I was stopped by one officer over there, saying, ‘Hey, that’s a police officer’s car,’ with a police sergeant that was off-duty that I didn’t know — with him completely blocking me in,” he told the outlet.
“He told me, what I’m doing? ‘You got to drop the car.’”
While Rodriguez attempted to inform the officers that the vehicle was already considered bank property, they proceeded to take him into custody.
He ultimately spent 20 hours in jail and was charged with felony possession of stolen property.
The felony charge was swiftly dropped, however, Rodriguez was also then charged with falsifying business records and possessing police scanners.
Rodriguez and his boss, Anthony Destefano, vehemently protested the arrest and charges.
“This is totally wrong,” Destefano told NY1.
“This should have never happened.”
He added, “This is a repossession, a legal repossession, from the banks, with a court order.”
Four months later, the courts agreed with the two.
Once they put the handcuffs on me, they knew they had to charge me with something…because it was an officer’s car.
Jose Rodriguez
In September, 2019, the Staten Island district attorney’s office dismissed the charges against Rodriguez.
“I think they knew that they had nothing on me,” Rodriguez told NY1 at the time.
“Once they put the handcuffs on me, they knew they had to charge me with something…because it was an officer’s car.”
He revealed that the incident caused him to miss out on thousands of dollars of income as he was unable to tow any vehicles – due to a boot police placed on his truck.
Rodriguez told NY1 that he filed a notice of claim against the department and officers involved.
At the time of the dismissal of charges, the NYPD told the outlet that the department’s internal affairs bureau was investigating the incident.
The NYPD did not immediately respond to The U.S. Sun’s request for comment.
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