Real-life Grinch charged for stealing packages from doorsteps

A 26-year-old Queens man was charged Wednesday for stealing packages from four homes — later claiming it was because he was out of work.

Frank Garcia of East Elmhurst was awaiting arraignment in Queens Criminal Court Wednesday for charges thatinclude four counts of petit larceny and four counts of criminal possession of stolen property, according to Queens District Attorney Richard A. Brown.

On Tuesday afternoon, Garcia was seen walking down 47th Street and taking packages — which had been left on four doorsteps after being delivered — and placing them on blue push cart, prosecutors said.

After looking over surveillance video of Garcia’s apartment building, police observed him with the cart containing various packages. When police recovered the cart they found the packages contained an assortment of items such as ten curtains, bottles of lotion, a pair of pants, a purse, a Bluetooth speaker and a bottle of soap.

When he was arrested, Garcia told police he had taken the packages because “he was out f work and it was Christmas.”

“When people place mail orders, they do not expect their delivered packages to be brazenly stolen off their doorstep by somebody acting like the Dr. Seuss’ character in the book, ‘How The Grinch Stole Christmas!,’ as the defendant is accused of doing in this case — even though he had no way of knowing what the packages contained,” Brown said. “What the defendant now knows is that he faces the prospect of being incarcerated for his alleged actions.”

If convicted, Garcia faces up to a year in jail.