NYC Parks Dept. employee busted driving ‘ghost car’ through Staten Island

A New York City Parks employee was arrested after he was caught driving a “ghost car” through Staten Island, officials said Friday.

Ahmahd Daniels, 25, was driving a 2008 Chrysler 300 past the corner of Sheridan Ave. and West Fingerboard Road in Grasmere about 4:30 p.m. Thursday when cops pulled him over for failing to signal. Daniels was off duty at the time.

After pulling the Chrysler over, cops realized that it had a forged temporary license plate affixed to the back, cops said.

Police were about to seize the vehicle and take Daniels into custody when the parks employee tried to fight the officers off, cops said.

Daniels was charged with criminal possession of forged instruments for the fake plates, resisting arrest, obstruction of government administration, operating a motor vehicle without insurance and having an unregistered vehicle.

He is a job training participant for the city Parks Department, according to the website seethruny.net. An email to the agency for comment was not immediately returned.

The arrest comes as cops continue with a massive crackdown on cars with altered or fake license plates that are used to throw off license plate readers at toll booths.

City and state authorities have created an interagency task force to combat the so-called ghost cars and an initial operation in March netted 73 car seizures and 282 summons, and led to eight arrests, according to authorities.

Ghost cars have been a growing problem in the post-COVID years, and the NYPD has at times been accused of not staging a sufficient effort to take them off the streets.

Mayor Adams, who hailed the new task force, characterized the ghost autos as menaces to city streets. While most simply have them to avoid paying tolls, criminals also use the fake tags and sometimes carry several sets of license plates in their vehicles, he said.