Man said to have stolen doc's car

A man slipped into an East Meadow pediatrician's office Wednesday, took some keys and drove off in the doctor's Jeep, a fire emergency vehicle, Nassau police said.

"Our biggest concern is the fact that this car is out there rolling around," said Debbie Zaso, the office manager and wife of Dr. John Zaso, who responds to emergencies as the medical director of three fire departments. "What if he impersonates an officer?"

Police said they are reviewing office videotape that shows a man in his late 30s to early 40s going into various rooms at the Merrick Avenue office about 10:07 a.m.

The footage captures the suspect taking advantage of the morning rush of patients by slipping past the front desk, the office manager said. He took an employee's purse from her office, she said, and seconds after the pediatrician entered an exam room, he was in the doctor's private office taking the keys from his jacket, she said.

The man then went out to the Jeep Sahara parked at the side of the building and passed the purse to another man who had been pacing there, cameras show, Zaso said. The second man left in another car driven by a third person, she said.

No one knew anything had happened until a nurse asked the doctor what he did with his car, the office manager said.

"He could have been a dad walking in," Zaso said of the suspect. "He just blended in with the crowd. This guy knew what he was doing. He slipped in, slipped out, never looked shaken up.

"Nobody was hurt, thank God," she said.

The suspect was wearing a black leather jacket, gray hooded shirt and is about 5 feet, 10 inches tall, police said.

Police ask anyone with information to contact Nassau County Crime Stoppers at 800-244-TIPS.

"When you watch the video and you see this guy standing there in the waiting room full of kids, you don't know if he has a gun, you don't know. . . . Unbelievably scary."