PORT JERVIS – An alert citizen’s call to police for help on the morning of December 26 brought Port Jervis Police and Fire Departments to a remote area of the city for a reported car off a Riverside Park path and into a drainage ditch.
After a brief search, Port Jervis Fire Chief Keith Brown was able to spot the car in the water.
It was not immediately known how many, if any, occupants were in the car. Rescuers quickly reached the vehicle, which was in the water but not submerged, and discovered it to be unoccupied and abandoned.
Police identified the vehicle as being reported stolen from an auto dealership in Port Jervis. The vehicle was removed from the drainage ditch with assistance from Hockenberry Garage and Port Jervis’ Department of Public Works.
Thirty-seven-year-old Philip Leslie was located by police and arrested the same day. Police have charged him with this incident, and additional thefts that occurred between the dates of December 24-26, 2023 in Port Jervis to which he is alleged to be connected.
Leslie was charged with two counts of burglary, two counts of grand larceny, criminal possession of stolen property, two counts of criminal possession of stolen property, criminal mischief, and tampering with physical evidence.
Leslie was also charged with being a fugitive from justice from New Jersey-based on an arrest warrant issued for the crimes of motor vehicle theft, criminal trespass, and criminal mischief.
Besides the theft of the vehicle in Port Jervis. Leslie has been charged by Port Jervis Police with the commission of two burglaries; one from a building located in the Tri-States section of Port Jervis and one to an auto dealership in the city’s Second Ward.
He has also been charged with two motor vehicle thefts from this Second Ward business, and with being in possession of a motor vehicle reported stolen on December 24 from Montague, New Jersey.
He has been remanded to Orange County Jail in lieu of $10,000 bail, and pending further court proceedings in Orange County and extradition proceedings to New Jersey.
