George Santos lashed out at Mayor Eric Adams and blamed him for running an unsafe New York City after the disgraced former lawmaker’s car was broken into.
In a video shared to X on early Wednesday morning, Mr Santos showed his vehicle’s passenger side backseat window smashed and claimed his car, as well as five others, had been broken into while parked on the street.
Mr Santos irately vented to the camera, calling for Mr Adams to resign and claiming he was running a dangerous city.
“Look at that Mayor Adams, this is the city you’re running. You’re a cop, right? You piece of s***. Is that what you do? Is that how you’re keeping the city safe you f***ing animal?” Mr Santos said.
The former congressman claimed the city was “back to New York City in the 70s” and encouraged people not to move to New York.
“Don’t move to New York people,” Mr Santos said. “This city only cares to f** over Americans and take our taxpayer’s dollars and shove up in the a**es of these migrants while the city is dangerous. We can’t even street park our car.”
Mr Santos did not specify what part of the city his car was in when it was broken into, or if he notified police about the incident.
A spokesperson for Mr Adams’ office responded to Mr Santos on X, accusing him of breaking into the car himself.
Later, the spokesperson “confirmed with NYPD” that the car Mr Santos was speaking about was from 2018 and “not new” as Mr Santos has claimed.
Mr Santos replied that the car was new to him as he recently purchased it.
In 2022, burglary rates were up approximately 23 per cent compared to 2021, according to New York City felony offense data. Car-related thefts and burglaries specifically have seen a rise in occurrence throughout the city.
Governor Kathy Hochul unveiled a plan to target car thefts this past year after the city saw more than 1,499 motor vehicle thefts in July 2023 alone.
In August of this year, car thefts in New York City went up 25 per cent compared to the previous years.
This plan included giving more money to law enforcement technology “to help prevent, reduce, and solve crime” and increasing communication between law enforcement throughout New York State and the city to track down stolen vehicles.
The plan also included targeting teenagers or young adults who are considered at risk of stealing cars or burglarising vehicles due to their involvement in crews or after seeing social media videos encouraging car thefts.
Mayor Adams unveiled a similar plan in September of this year.
Mr Santos was born and raised in Queens and up until recently, represented New York’s 3rd congressional district.
He was ousted from Congress at the beginning of December after he was federally indicted and accused of participating in a campaign finance fraud scheme as well as wire fraud, aggravated identity theft and more.
