Driver Arrested after Truck Crashes into Upscale Furniture Store on UES
Onlookers were surprised by the odd sight of the bright yellow truck lodged into part of a Midtown office building on the corner of East 57th Street and Third Avenue. Luckily, everyone is okay. The driver is facing several charges.
| 27 Jun 2025 | 07:11
A Penske box truck being temporarily propped up after hitting the awning outside a French luxury furniture store. (
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The driver of the allegedly stolen Penske truck was restrained by a security guard moments after crashing into an awning outside a furniture showroom on the corner of East 57th Street and Third Avenue. (
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The 38-year old driver of a truck that crashed into the awning outside a luxury French furniture showroom on the Upper East Side on June 23 has been arrested and faces grand larceny and reckless endangerment charges.
Jose Claudio lost control of the Penske box truck he allegedly stole and collided with the awning of a building housing the upscale Roche-Bobois showroom at 950 Third Ave. on the corner of East 57th Street shortly after 11am, according to police. Prosecutors said he drove the stolen vehicle down Lexington Avenue and turned left onto East 57th Street before crashing into the awning.
Claudio was arrested at 3:40pm on June 23, authorities confirmed to Straus News. He was also involved in an incident in a neighboring precinct before the crash that resulted in charges of forcible touching and harassment. Prosecutors said at the corner of East 59th and First Avenue earlier that day, he slapped the buttocks of a woman and told her, “I like what I see.”
”It was chaotic,” said a person who answered the phone at the Roche-Bobois showroom on June 24. “We stayed open the whole time. Fortunately nobody was hurt and the crazy man has been arrested.”
Normally, there are people waiting at a busy bus stop outside the store, but there were no pedestrians at the stop when the out-of-control truck careened through the intersection and hit the awning, sending it crashing to the ground.
The driver experienced only minor injuries, and the building sustained no significant damage.
The truck was propped up temporarily adjacent to the furniture showroom’s ground floor by firefighters as the FDNY, EMS, and NYPD responded. Police began diverting the lunchtime crowd away from the crash site and there were no reported injuries to bystanders on the busy street while tourists, passersby, and office workers on their lunch break stopped to gawk and take photos of the bizarre site.
Penske, the rental truck owner, did not return a call by press time. Further calls to the Roche-Bobois showroom were not returned. Sarah Musa of the NYC Public Defenders office is Claudio’s attorney. Bail was set at $2,000. Claudio is due back in court June 30.
“We stayed open the whole time. Fortunately nobody was hurt and the crazy man has been arrested.” — a person who answered the Roche-Bobois showroom phone