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Ex-Con Arrested Near Stuy Town with Jeep Stolen from East Village, NYPD Say

By Noah Hurowitz | February 2, 2017 3:04pm
 Alexander Owens stole a 1997 Jeep from its parking spot in the East Village and was caught near Stuy Town, police say.
Alexander Owens stole a 1997 Jeep from its parking spot in the East Village and was caught near Stuy Town, police say.
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DNAInfo/Noah Hurowitz

STUYVESANT TOWN — An ex-con with a history of robberies stole a Jeep in the East Village but was foiled near Stuyvesant Town by an eagle-eyed police officer less than an hour later, according to the NYPD.

Alexander Owens, 47, broke into a 1997 Jeep Wrangler parked at the corner of East Fifth Street and Second Avenue at about 2:50 p.m. on Jan. 28, according to a police report.

A police officer spotted the Jeep half an hour later at 3:17 p.m. and stopped Owens at East 16th Street and Avenue C on the east side of Stuy Town, according to a criminal complaint.

While questioning Owens, the officer noticed a pair of screwdrivers on the passenger seat, tools often used by burglars and thieves to break into cars, prosecutors said.

Owens was arrested and charged with grand larceny, possession of stolen property and possession of burglary tools, records show. A judge ordered him held on $5,000 bail and he is due back in court on Thursday.

Owens has at least three prior convictions, including one from 2003 for unauthorized use of a motor vehicle for which he spent two years in state prison, records show.

He also spent three years in prison from 1996 to 1999 for an attempted robbery and a year from 1994 to 1995 for possession of stolen property, according to Department of Corrections and Community Supervision records.