Mayoral candidate’s car goes missing in LIC, sent on wild goose chase finding it

Sal Albanese

July 10, 2017 By Jason Cohen

Democratic Mayoral candidate Sal Albanese thought his car vanished Saturday after he attended a campaign stop in Long Island City/Astoria.

The longshot candidate initially thought his car had been stolen– but it had actually been towed by the NYPD nearby.

Albanese, who was in the neighborhood to speak at Family Day at the Queensbridge Houses, parked his car on 41st Ave., between 21st Street and 12th Street, around 1 p.m. He said that he parked in a legal spot along with about 60 other vehicles.

After speaking at the event, he said he walked to where he thought he parked his car, but another vehicle was in its place.

“I thought maybe I didn’t park there,” Albanese said.

So he returned to the event and asked the police about the car. They said that since it was his wife’s Honda 2007 Fit, she needed to report it to the 114th Precinct.

Albanese and his wife called the precinct several times and it did not help, he said. He then contacted 311, which has a record of every car towed in the city, but it had nothing on file. He called 311 a couple hours later, yet it still had nothing.

At this point, he did not know if it had been stolen or towed.

On Sunday, while holding a press conference at Penn Station for firefighters, he received a call from the NYPD saying his car had been towed to Vernon Blvd., four blocks from where he parked on Saturday.

When he found the car there was no ticket and 311 still had no record of the tow.

“I’m trying to find out why my car was the only one towed on that street,” Albanese said.

Albanese noted that he may call the department of investigations about the incident.

“If I wasn’t running for mayor I wouldn’t have found the vehicle,” he said, claiming that extra effort was made by the NYPD to locate it given his profile. “Why my car was selected to be towed is still a big mystery.”