A literature lover went rogue on Thursday, swiping tomes from the Barnes & Noble in Park Slope before struggling with a cop, breaking free and stealing and crashing a van.
Police are now throwing the book at their suspect, Jay Wilkins, who is charged with more than just lifting the books from the store, which is on Seventh Avenue near Sixth Street, at about 5 pm.
When the officer accosted the would-be shoplifter, Wilkins fought him off and broke free — then jumped into a van outside the store and punched the driver — “Grand Theft Auto”-style — before hijacking the ride, cops say.
But Wilkins’s alleged Ludlum-esque joyride was short lived — he only made it five blocks before he crashed and totaled the van at the corner of First Street.
Cops booked him, and took the punched driver to New York Methodist Hospital nearby.
“My vehicle is a wreck,” the victim, Valarae Green, told our sister publication, the New York Post. “My keys are gone — I’m having flashbacks!”
Hours after the arrest, Wilkins was “perp-rolled” out of the 78th Precinct stationhouse, strapped to a rolling chair and awaiting a mental health evaluation.
