He Was Caught on Camera

A Sag Harbor man facing a charge of petty larceny forgot the most basic maxim for criminals: make sure no one is watching.

Sag Harbor Village police said that at about 6:30 a.m. on March 31, Gregory P. Zaykowski, 34, was caught on surveillance cameras stealing car batteries from five vehicles parked at Harbor Heights service station on Hampton Road. Police were able to pinpoint the time because the service shop’s manager and former owner, Gregg Miller, ran back the video from the multiple surveillance cameras placed around the property.

Mr. Zaykowski apparently never bothered to look up, or to heed the numerous signs that warn the gas station is under surveillance.

Mr. Miller told police, according to the report, that he thought he recognized the man stealing the batteries, whose first name, he said, was the same as his own.

By the next day, Mr. Miller had posted a video of the incident on Facebook. Mr. Zaykowski contacted him that day, apparently after seeing it, and offered to pay for the batteries. Instead, Mr. Miller called police, who arrested Mr. Zaykowski on a charge of petty larceny. He was later released without bail, and will appear in court at a future date.

Mr. Miller said in an interview that he had worked for several years building up the business at the service station before “it was sold out from under me.”

“It’s sad. You do something good, you get nowhere,” he said. “You break the law, then you get attention.”

The video he put on Facebook “had about 900 hits,” he said.