{"id":104333,"date":"2026-01-19T02:37:10","date_gmt":"2026-01-19T02:37:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/104333\/"},"modified":"2026-01-19T02:37:10","modified_gmt":"2026-01-19T02:37:10","slug":"brazen-nyc-carjacker-swipes-vehicle-where-blind-senior-was-waiting-for-son","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/104333\/","title":{"rendered":"Brazen NYC carjacker swipes vehicle where blind senior was waiting for son"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>An elderly blind man was taken for an unwanted joyride in Long Island City when a crook jumped into his son\u2019s idling car and drove off with him \u2014 leaving him unaware he was being carjacked, cops and kin said.<\/p>\n<p>The 72-year-old man\u2019s son had parked the Subaru and left his father inside the idling car while the 34-year-old ran inside a Target near the intersection of 44 Drive and 23 Street in Queens round 7:15 p.m. Saturday, cops and law-enforcement sources said.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>A criminal then jumped into the vehicle and sped off, taking the old man along with him, cops said.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><img style=\"aspect-ratio:0.77539063;display:block\" fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" data-modal-image=\"38219484\" width=\"457\" height=\"590\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/2016-subaru-engine-idling-72-119182949.jpg\" alt=\"It was reported to police that on Saturday, January 17, 2026, at approximately 1913 hours, in the vicinity of 44 Drive and 23 Street, a 34-year-old male victim had parked his 2016 Subaru with the engine idling with a 72-year-old male passenger in the backseat. As the victim entered a commercial establishment, an unidentified individual entered the vehicle and drove away. Shortly after, the vehicle and 72-year-old occupant were later found in the vicinity of 53 Avenue and 44 Street, within the confines of the 108 Precinct.\" class=\"wp-image-38219484\"  \/>A 72-year-old blind man was waiting in a Subaru while his son ran into Target in Long Island City Saturday when this man allegedly carjacked the vehicle with the senior citizen inside.  NYPD<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe was in the car, but he\u2019s blind \u2014 he didn\u2019t know what was happening,\u201d said the elderly victim\u2019s wife, who asked not to be named, to The Post.\u00a0\u201cHe didn\u2019t complain because he\u2019s not really aware.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The wife said the car thief didn\u2019t speak a word to her husband when the pair roared off, which left him confused.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe\u2019s calling my son, but nobody answered,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" style=\"aspect-ratio:0.64941406;display:block\" decoding=\"async\" data-modal-image=\"38219492\" width=\"383\" height=\"590\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/72-year-old-blind-man-119180068.jpg\" alt=\"1\/18\/26 Real estates of the Target department store in Long Island City. (pictured) A 72 year old blind man was sitting in his son's car in front of this Target store, waiting for his son to return to the vehicle, when a perpetrator jumped into the car and took it for a joyride. The father is named Reynaldo Tupas, and the son's name is Michael Tupas. The car and father were found several block away, and the man was unharmed. It is not clear if the car was damaged. 25-01 Jackson Avenue, Queens, NY. Please credit Gregory P. Mango. New York Post in house.\" class=\"wp-image-38219492\"  \/>The car was idling outside a Target near the intersection of 44 Drive and 23 Street in Long Island City when the carjacking happened.  Gregory P. Mango<\/p>\n<p>When the woman\u2019s son left Target and got back to where he\u2019d parked the car, he was immediately \u201cworried\u201d to see that his father and car missing, and he called the police, she said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe left his dad in the car, and once he came back, it\u2019s gone,\u201d the wife said. \u201cThe car was gone, and my husband was gone, too. [The crook] took it away.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The stolen car and its geriatric passenger were later found dumped nearly three miles away, at the intersection of 53 Avenue and 44 Street, in an industrial part of Maspeth, cops said.\u00a0The elderly man was unhurt.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey must go to jail. What they did was not right,\u201d the man\u2019s wife said of the thief, who is still in the wind.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An elderly blind man was taken for an unwanted joyride in Long Island City when a crook jumped&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":104334,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[47433,20489,11798,9090,57,9,56,63,65,64,122,58],"class_list":{"0":"post-104333","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-city","8":"tag-blind","9":"tag-carjackings","10":"tag-elderly-care","11":"tag-long-island-city","12":"tag-metro","13":"tag-new-york","14":"tag-ny","15":"tag-nyc","16":"tag-nyc-headlines","17":"tag-nyc-news","18":"tag-queens","19":"tag-us-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104333","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=104333"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104333\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/104334"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=104333"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=104333"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=104333"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}