Man Charged In LI Carjackings, 1 With Child Involved: PD

RIVERHEAD, NY — A man was arrested Thursday after carjacking two vehicles and attempting to steal a third in Riverhead, police said.

Jan Carlos Vargas, 32, who police said is homeless, was arrested and charged with two counts of second-degree robbery and one count of second-degree attempted robbery, police said.

According to Riverhead Town Police, the first incident took place at 4:40 p.m when a call came in about an attempted carjacking taking place in the parking lot of the T.J. Maxx shopping plaza on Route 58.

A Baiting Hollow woman, 67, contacted police on her cell phone and said that a man had just attempted to forcibly remove her from her 2011 Jeep while she was parked in the parking lot, police said.

While on the phone with police, she saw the same man approach another vehicle nearby and saw him get into the driver's seat of the 2021 Toyota Highlander, police said. As he got into the Toyota, the caller saw a 10-year-old girl get out of the passenger side of the Toyota, police said. The man drove away, exiting the parking lot onto Route 58 and heading east, police said.

The child told police that she had been sitting in the vehicle waiting for her mother to finish shopping when the man got into the vehicle and began yelling at her and demanding that she get out, police said.

A description of the man and the vehicle was broadcast and a short time later, the Toyota was located by a uniformed sergeant patrolling West Main Street in Riverhead, police said.

The sergeant was then approached by a 79-year-old Riverhead man, who told him that a man had pulled up to the area in the Toyota, gotten out, and approached him as he was sitting parked in his 2005 Chevy Avalanche, police said.

The man grabbed the driver of the Avalanche by the arm and demanded that he exit the vehicle; when the driver got out, the man got into the Avalanche and drove off in the truck, exiting the parking lot onto Peconic Avenue and heading in an unknown direction, police said.

A description of the subject and the second vehicle were then broadcast to area departments. The Riverhead Police Department's detective division reviewed surveillance footage and an officer recognized the person in the footage as a man who was involved in two calls for service by the Riverhead Police Department earlier in the afternoon, police said.

During those two incidents, the man was identified as Carlos Vargas, 32; his name was then shared with area police departments, police said.

At 7:00 p.m., the Suffolk County Police Department received a report of a suspicious man on Route 25A in Rocky Point near Patchogue Drive, police said.

Police found a man with an "altered mental status," wearing only shorts near the roadway; he said that he had consumed some type of hallucinogen and that he had been running from the Riverhead Police, authorities said.

Vargas was transported to Mather Hospital for evaluation, and later released to the custody of Riverhead Police, authorities said. Vargas was then transported to Riverhead Police Department where he was processed and held for morning arraignment, police said.

The Avalanche was later recovered by a Riverhead officer where it had been abandoned in a parking lot in the Rocky Point area, police said.