What Happened
Miguel Perez, 68, of Shirley, was arrested Sunday afternoon by Suffolk County Police after allegedly stealing two Axon automated license plate readers from a police-monitored intersection in his own community the previous evening.
According to a press release from the Suffolk County Police Department, Perez removed the two Axon ALPR devices from their mounting at Moriches-Middle Island Road near Glen Drive in Shirley on Saturday, August 2, 2026, at approximately 6:40 p.m. — in broad daylight during early evening hours. Less than 24 hours later, at approximately 5:00 p.m. on Sunday, August 3, investigators located and arrested Perez on Carnation Drive, a residential street in Shirley not far from where the theft occurred.
Perez was charged with Grand Larceny in the 4th Degree, a class E felony under New York State law. He was issued a Desk Appearance Ticket, meaning he was not held in custody, and will be arraigned in court on a later date, per the Suffolk County Police Department press release.
No injuries were reported in connection with this incident. The two Axon ALPR units — networked cameras that automatically photograph and log license plates of passing vehicles and feed data in real time to law enforcement databases — represent specialized law enforcement infrastructure. Their removal from the intersection would have created a surveillance gap at that specific location for the duration they were missing.
Location & Road Context
Moriches-Middle Island Road is a major north-south arterial corridor cutting through central Suffolk County, connecting the South Shore communities near Moriches to the mid-Island areas around Middle Island. The intersection near Glen Drive sits within a residential pocket of Shirley, a hamlet in the Town of Brookhaven. The placement of automated license plate readers at this location reflects its role as a through-route used by significant daily traffic volume in western Brookhaven.
Shirley and the surrounding Suffolk County road network have seen active enforcement activity in 2026. Our local incident database contains 712 recorded accidents in Suffolk County this year alone, with multiple incidents recorded on August 3 alone — including crashes on the Sagtikos State Parkway, Southern State Parkway, I-495, and NY 27 — underscoring why traffic monitoring infrastructure like ALPR systems is considered a priority asset for the department.
Investigation & Legal Proceedings
Perez faces a charge of Grand Larceny in the 4th Degree under New York Penal Law § 155.30, which applies when the value of stolen property exceeds $1,000 or when the property stolen is specifically enumerated under the statute — a threshold that law enforcement equipment such as networked ALPR cameras would readily meet given their commercial cost. As a class E felony, a conviction carries a maximum sentence of up to four years in state prison in New York, though sentencing ultimately depends on prior criminal history, the value of the stolen property, and judicial discretion. Perez was not remanded; the Desk Appearance Ticket requires him to appear in court voluntarily for arraignment.
Police have not yet confirmed publicly how investigators linked Perez to the theft or whether the ALPR units were recovered at the time of his arrest.
Broader Impact
The theft of active law enforcement surveillance equipment — as opposed to, say, construction materials or retail goods — introduces an additional dimension to this case. ALPR systems like those manufactured by Axon feed license plate data into shared law enforcement databases in real time; their removal does not merely represent a property loss but a temporary blind spot in traffic enforcement and investigative capability at that intersection. A separate arrest on the same date for a construction fraud theft scheme reflects a broader pattern of theft-related enforcement activity across Suffolk County on August 3.