Opinion
January 30, 1997.
Judgment, Supreme Court, New York County (Allen Alpert, J., at hearing; Frederic Berman, J., at plea and sentence), rendered August 2, 1995, convicting defendant, upon his plea of guilty, of auto stripping in the first degree, and sentencing him, as a second felony offender, to a term of 2 to 4 years, unanimously affirmed.
Before: Sullivan, J. P., Rosenberger, Wallach and Williams, JJ.
Defendant's suppression motion was properly denied. The officers had a reasonable basis for frisking defendant because they reasonably suspected defendant of committing a crime involving potentially dangerous instruments ( People v Moore, 32 NY2d 67, 72, cert denied 414 US 1011; People v Mack, 26 NY2d 311, 317, cert denied 400 US 960). The officers saw defendant in an area known for its high incidence of automobile break-ins, first crouching near a car with a shiny metal object in his hand and then kneeling inside the car looking throughout, after which defendant, after being asked whether the car was his, responded "not really".