A newspaper deliveryman with a Good Samaritan's heart was left sprawled on the Sagtikos Parkway after he tried to help a man in a wrecked, burning Corvette, and the man jumped in the deliveryman's car and sped off.

Last night, police continued to search for the man who crashed the gray 2007 Chevrolet Corvette and subsequently stole James Scarabino's 1994 Chrysler LHS. Freeport authorities said the Corvette was reported stolen Wednesday afternoon from Main Street in Freeport.

Click here to find out more!
"We are investigating several leads," said Lt. Gerard Pelkofsky of Suffolk's Fourth Precinct.

Scarabino, 30, of Ronkonkoma, said he was headed northbound on the Sagtikos about 1 a.m. Thursday, on his way to work in the Bronx, when he witnessed the crash.

A car came up behind him at high speed, he said, and then the driver lost control and the vehicle rolled over several times before landing on its wheels on an embankment. Scarabino pulled over and called 911.

Scarabino, the son of a retired New York City cop, said all he could think was, "Get the guy out now. The car is on fire!" He opened the door and pulled the bloodied man out.

In the next moment, he said, the man shoved him, ran across the parkway and jumped into Scarabino's 1994 Chrysler LHS.

"He just looked like he was in a real hurry," Scarabino, who delivers Newsday and other papers, said in an interview Thursday at his home. "I didn't even think he was stealing my car. I didn't know what was going on."

Scarabino ran after the man, yelling, "Hey, get out of my car!"

But the man had put the Chrysler in gear and was trying to get away.

"I had one foot in the car and the other on the ground, and I was grabbing his shirt," Scarabino said. "We got about 50 feet and I let go and hit the ground, and he took off."

Only minutes before crashing the Corvette and stealing Scarabino's car, Suffolk police said, the man had rear-ended a 2002 Pontiac Grand Am on the Long Island Expressway. Philip Pocchia, 51, and his son, also Philip, 18, both of Shirley, were treated for minor injuries at Southside Hospital in Bay Shore and released at 5 a.m., authorities said.

Police said the thief abandoned Scarabino's car at the Sunoco gas station at the intersection of East Deer Park Road and Jericho Turnpike in Huntington at about 8 a.m.

The Corvette, Scarabino's Chrysler and the Grand Am were impounded and held as evidence, police said.

Scarabino's wife, Kristie, who left their three young sons with her aunt to meet her husband at the scene of the crash, said he had done the right thing.

"I'm very proud of him," she said. "I hope people always help others."

The early morning misadventure did not dampen Scarabino's altruism.

"If something happened to my wife and kids, God forbid, I'd hope someone would stop. If I see something, I'm gonna stop. I'm gonna still do it."