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In giving the Port Authority Police Department veteran its highest honor, the legion cited the day last August when Corrubia, while on vacation in Boston with his girlfriend, chased and collared a purse snatcher.
Three weeks later, he was one of three authority officers who grabbed a 46-year-old Fairview man trying to jump from the George Washington Bridge.
These are the latest chapters in a history of courageous and exemplary service, said retired Bergenfield Police Chief Thomas A. Lucas, who nominated Corrubia for the award.
Corrubia — whose father is a retired Paramus police chief — was an NYPD officer when he narrowly escaped the collapse of the second World Trade Center tower as he helped rescue those inside the first on 9/11 .
It brought him his third meritorious service citation, following one each for arresting a livery carjacker who was robbing cabbies at gunpoint and rescuing a couple from their car before it went over an embankment.
Port Authority Police Officer Fred Corrubia III
Corrubia, who lives in New Milford, began his law enforcement career with the NYPD in 1998 working out of the 32nd Precinct in Harlem. He was later assigned to the Manhattan North Task Force — also known as the Disorder Control Unit.
Corrubia was assigned to Newark Airport in 2002, his first year with the PAPD. He was transferred to the Central Police Pool a year later and then to the George Washington Bridge in 2004.
While at the airport, Corrubia and a TSA agent arrested a suspicious-looking man who, it turned out, was on the watch list and carrying a blade inside a ruler.
Soon after moving to the bridge, Corrubia carried a woman to safety from a bus that was on fire. He also ran across four lanes of traffic to reach a jumper.
Corrubia has helped save nine others in his decade at the GWB.
He became a national figure last fall.
Corrubia, who plays drums in a metal band was checking out some venues in Boston with his girlfriend, Kathleen, when he heard a woman scream: “He stole my purse!”
In an instant, he chased down and grabbed the thief, then put him down in a wrist lock.
RELATED: Off-duty Bergen Port Authority officer grabs purse snatcher — in Boston
“The Boston PD guys, they got there real quick,” Corrubia told the New York Daily News. “Very professional — great guys. They even let me cuff the guy. They’re a class act.
“I’m glad the woman got her bag back. She gave me a hug and offered to buy my girlfriend and [me a] drink, but we said, ‘No thanks.’
“We had to catch a train in the morning.”
In his nomination letter to the Honor Legion, Lucas wrote: “Outstanding police officers are those who, on a daily basis, strive to serve the public, maintain the order that society expects / deserves, and put themselves in harm’s way to continually protect the community.
“This is not to take away the significance of single acts of heroism that many police officers achieve, but to recognize those who repeatedly go above and beyond,” Lucas added. “Frederick Corrubia III is one of these officers.”
PHOTO: Mike Cebulski, NJ Honor Legion vice president, Corrubia, Bergen County Freeholder James Tedesco
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