A group of pickpockets who were working at the Governor’s Ball Festival in Queens was caught, but now all three members are free again, as police and court records indicate.
Officers were called to Flushing Meadows Corona Park during the three-day music festival due to reports of stolen phones. Sharp-eyed officers noticed the three Colombian migrants — one of whom was seen taking a phone from a victim’s purse, according to law enforcement sources.
The arrested individuals were Maritza Cortes Palomo, 35; Windi Paola Mendoza Echeverry, 34; and Maria Mendoza, 30. They were taken into custody and charged with fourth-degree grand larceny and fifth-degree criminal possession of stolen property, an NYPD spokesperson reported on Sunday.
Echeverry was also charged with resisting arrest, police said.
According to sources, cops from the NYPD Pickpocket Squad and Patrol Borough Queens North flooded the festival looking for sticky-fingered crooks, which led to the Friday night arrests.
One of the migrants had four phones tucked in her waistband when she was arrested, sources said.
Court records show that all three of the alleged Governor’s Ball thieves were arraigned on Saturday and Sunday and all were released without bail pending return court appearances.
All three woman told police they live in Florida.
Under the state’s controversial 2019 criminal justice reforms the charges lodged against the three migrants were not eligible for bail.
Palomo and Mendoza are due back in court on July 29, and Echeverry is scheduled for Aug. 12.
The Post reported last year that teams of pickpocketing asylum seekers had created an additional headache for the NYPD, with sources identifying at least 100 migrant offenders.
One year earlier, the department created the pickpocket team to combat the trend.
