A good Samaritan on Long Island is sharing his story after he helped fend off a carjacker from stealing an SUV — while the vehicle owner's 14-month-old grandchild was sleeping inside.
The incident occurred Tuesday afternoon in Greenport as Bill Gorga was running errands, picking up pastries and champagne for Valentine's Day. While parked outside shops in town, Gorga said he saw a carjacking in progress, then noticed the frantic grandmother.
"She says, 'That’s my car, the baby’s in it, somebody’s driving off in the car with the baby!'" Gorga told NBC New York.
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The baby is 14 months old and had been left in a running SUV as the grandmother ran into a store. The vehicle started pulling away, Gorga made a split-second decision to help.
"I opened my car door and I said get in. We got to get the baby," Gorga recalled.
He chased the stolen SUV for less than a mile before forcing it off the road. The grandmother got out and tried to rescue her grandchild, but she somehow also ended up inside the stolen vehicle.
"Now he took off again with her and the baby and I wanted to cry at that point, but I didn’t. Now I said I have to get two people instead of one," said Gorga.
He then forced the carjacker off the road for a second time, about a mile from where the chase began. That’s when the grandmother and infant grandchild emerged from the vehicle, safe and sound.
But the chase didn’t end there. as Southold Police say the carjacker took off in a hurry. He led police another four miles or so into Southold, eventually crashing the car into a guardrail outside an American Legion hall.
The driver, Paul Ludener, of Holtsville, was arrested on drunk driving and other charges. While Southold's police chief said he wished Gorga had stopped to call 911, he called the man's actions heroic.
Gorga said he's no hero — he simply acted on instinct.
"If I didn’t do it, who was gonna do it? There was nobody there," he said. "I just happened to be at the right place at the right time, to help somebody."
When everything was over, Gorga says the unidentified grandmother had one word for him: hanks. Police said it wasn't clear why Ludener stole the SUV. He has three prior felony convictions and was ordered held without bail.
