By John Valenti
The Associated Press
Levitown, N.Y. — A 31-year-old man was arrested early Tuesday after he posed as a police officer and kidnapped the passenger of a taxi cab in Levittown -- taking her for about three hours before letting her go, Nassau police said.
The man called the Yellow Cab Co. late Monday, said he was a police officer, and told the dispatcher he needed a taxi cab to pull over on Hempstead Turnpike, police said. The cab did just that, stopping near Gardiners Avenue in Levittown.
And there, Nassau County police said, Christopher Mackrodt of Levittown, carrying handcuffs and wearing a shirt with NCPD patches on it, displayed a weapon -- later found to be a BB gun -- and forced a 39-year-old Farmingdale woman riding in the cab into his 1989 Mercury.
The woman was held against her will in the Mercury for about three hours, police said. She was released uninjured, police said, when Mackrodt drove her back to the Yellow Cab Co. headquarters on Wolcott Road in Levittown and let her out.
Mackrodt, of 3 Brook Lane, once again identified himself as a police officer, directing the dispatcher to give her a ride home, police said.
Police said the dispatcher noted Mackrodt’s license plate, leading to a traffic stop early Tuesday on Ridge Lane in Levittown, where real police arrested the alleged impersonator. Police said Mackrodt was carrying a fake badge and a laptop computer. The BB gun also was recovered.
Mackrodt was arrested at 2:35 a.m. Tuesday and charged with driving while intoxicated, second-degree kidnapping, first-degree criminal impersonation and multiple vehicle and traffic law violations. He was scheduled to be arraigned Tuesday in First District Court, Hempstead.