News Crew's Gear Stolen Outside Weeksville Heritage Center: NYPD

CROWN HEIGHTS, BROOKLYN — A Brooklyn thief was caught on video stealing a news crew's reporting equipment near the Weeksville Heritage Center Friday, the same day it made headlines with a new protected cultural institution status, according to police.

The thief rolled up to the corner of Utica and St. Marks avenues — two blocks away from Historic Weeksville, which City Council announced Friday it would save from bankruptcy with Cultural Institutions Group funding — in a red Dodge minivan at about 7:05 a.m., police said.

Video shows the man hopping out of his van, walking to the curb and calmly loading a tripod, lighting kit and microphone into his Dodge, police said.

Police did not release the name of the news outlet that lost its gear.

The theft occurred the same day City Council announced the Weeksville Heritage Center would be preserved with city funding. Owners of the historic site recently announced the center would be forced to close without a $200,000 influx in fund.

Historic Weeksville, one of the nation's first settlements for free African Americans, was founded in 1838 and one of the first places where black people were free to own homes, build businesses and establish schools and churches, some of which still stand today.

The man fled east on Saint Marks Avenue, according to police.