Police Officer of the Month, October 2005

On Sunday, January 16th, 2005 P.O. James Polla was assigned to take a report of a past larceny that occurred in his sector. Upon arrival he checked the exterior of the house to ascertain if there was a break or attempt break. After determining that there was no break the officer went inside to interview the complainant, a 80 year old widow. The complainant and her late husband had collected millions of dollars worth of high end antiques. The complainant displayed these items in every available space of her residence. P.O. Polla had remembered he had been in the residence about 10 years ago, when her husband passed away and he noticed a painting made in 1712.

After interviewing the complainant and determining what was missing, P.O. Polla inquired to who had access to the house in the past few weeks. The complainant had two caretakers and a home health care worker. The two caretakers were on the scene and proper identification was obtained. The complainant provided Officer Polla with the home health care workers name, telephone number and auto registration plate number.

On Officer Polla’s next tour, January 17, he was on patrol driving through Port Washington and observed a antique shop on Port Washington Blvd. The shop had items of comparable size and description of items taken from the complainant. Officer Polla notified his department that he was going into the shop and make inquires in regards to the items. The officer interviewed the shop owner and inquired if anyone had try to sell him any antique clocks in the past few weeks. The owner responded that a lady had come in last week and sold him a antique clock and he was shown the clock and it matched the description of a clock taken from the house. Officer Polla inquired further of the person who sold the items and the description of the seller matched the description of the home health care worker. He checked his records and gave Officer Polla the woman’s name and a description of her vehicle. While relaying the information to the desk officer the shop keeper showed the officer a painting that he purchased from the woman and he recognized the painting as being the one he had seen previously at the residence. The painting from 1712. The officer then went and picked up the complainant and brought her back to the shop where she had identified the property taken from her. Identification was made on twenty (20) items with a value of approximately $200,000.

On January 18, 2005 when the home health care worker showed up for work she was arrested and charged with the larceny. More property was recovered from her vehicle and a consent was given to search her apartment, where more property was recovered along with cards and receipts from other pawn shops throughout Queens. Over $500,000 worth of property was recovered and the shop owner in Port Washington was also arrested.