NYPD detective to step down after 30 years

Like countless times over his more than 30-year career, NYPD Det. Nelson Dones made a bust Saturday night on the Manhattan streets he has known all his life.

Dones, 57, collared a suspect after the man had approached a woman on the Times Square Shuttle platform and took her iPhone from her bag. The woman was an undercover police officer and Dones was watching nearby.

Along with officers, he quickly swooped in and arrested the 26-year-old Brooklyn man.

It was to be one of the last busts of Dones' long career.

Dones will step down Tuesday from the NYPD where he spent much of the past 30 years patrolling the vast expanse of underground platforms and other hidden nooks and dark corners of the New York City subway system.

He has busted pickpockets, sexual assault suspects and other assorted thieves and crooks who make their living, like Dones, underground.

A five-year battle with lymphoma could not keep Dones from the streets for good.

He took a leave of absence in 2000 but returned in 2005 in order to pass on his experience to others as a training officer. Dones said he still has passion for police work. He will leave behind many trained recruits but he said he is determined to keep the police community in his life even into his retirement.

"It reminds me of how when I first came on in 1980, I was so gung-ho," said Dones, a Westchester County resident. "It's good that I have the same enthusiasm."

Dones' love of police work was on display Saturday when, authorities said, Fernando Francis attempted to steal the iPhone.

Dones, assigned to the NYPD Transit Bureau, was with officers on a stakeout looking for subway thieves about 6 p.m. Police said Francis grabbed the undercover officer's iPhone out of a backpack and fled. He didn't get far, police said.

Dones and his partners soon had the man in custody. Many of those officers learned the ways of the subways, the city streets above and even a few life lessons, under the careful tutelage of Dones.

Over the years, he trained more than 100 recruits to identify suspects. He instructed them on how to follow and arrest a thief and the best way to contact witnesses and prepare them for trial. He also dispensed advice on personal finances, investments and life.

"After so many years, you wind up being a father figure whether you choose it or not," said Dones. "They could be my children."