BATTERY PARK CITY — A quick-thinking Battery Park City Authority worker earned praise for helping arrest a homeless man who allegedly swiped computers from the agency's offices two days in a row last month.
After his arrest, the suspect that DeShay Crabb helped capture, Ellis Broadway, was also charged with the theft of a Mercedes from a TriBeCa garage this past summer.
"It worked out really well," said Crabb, 35, a safety inspector at the authority who garnered the praise of coworkers and cops, including a round of applause at the agency's holiday party. "It was one of my good moments this year."
Crabb was walking past West Thames Park last Tuesday when he spotted a bedraggled man wearing two coats who resembled a man captured in surveillance footage of the back-to-back November break-ins at the Battery Park City Parks Conservancy's South End Avenue headquarters.So he decided to follow the man.
"I wasn't scared," said Crabb, of Upper Manhattan. "It was my adrenaline. I felt so violated. I wasn't going to let this guy get away. Even if I had to follow him all the way up the West Side Highway, I would have done it."
Crabb, who has worked for the authority for 14 years and handles surveillance and security, tailed the man along West Thames Street to South End Avenue, and then decided to stop him to ensure he wouldn't be able to slip away.
"I told him I wanted to talk to him about something," Crabb said. "I stalled him."
The man appeared suspicious but did not run away, and a few minutes later, Crabb flagged down a passing NYPD car at South End Avenue and Rector Place and gave the officers enough information to arrest the man.
Broadway, 51, was charged with two counts of burglary for allegedly lifting a laptop from the Parks Conservancy's headquarters at 21 South End Ave. on Nov. 12 and returning the next evening and stealing a desktop computer and monitor, police and the Manhattan District Attorney said. Broadway had an accomplice on Nov. 13 who has not been caught, police said.Crabb said Broadway, who police said had an "extensive" arrest record, appeared unstable.
"He was acting irate," Crabb said. "He was claiming he was from the Department of Defense. He said he had special ties, so no one could talk to him."
After Tuesday's arrest, the NYPD connected Broadway to a previously unsolved car theft from a garage in TriBeCa in July, police said.
Broadway, who also has a pending drug charge, allegedly drove off with a 2011 Mercedes SUV from a garage at 21 Reade St. on July 27. He was charged with grand larceny and unauthorized use of a vehicle, police said.
Broadway's lawyer, with the nonprofit New York County Defender Services, declined to comment.
A Battery Park City Authority spokesman said the agency was glad the thief had been caught.
"Battery Park City has become a strong community because people look out for each other," the spokesman said.
"We're deeply appreciative of the professionalism of the NYPD in making the arrest."
This wasn't the only recent burglary in Battery Park City. Over Labor Day weekend, thieves twice broke into the Battery Park City Day Nursery at 215 S. End Ave., stealing eight laptops, two cameras and an electronic keyboard.
An NYPD spokesman declined to comment on whether Broadway was being investigated in connection with that theft as well.
