Lock your car doors and take your keys inside at night. Car thieves have been targeting our area for several years, preying easy targets: drivable, unlocked cars with the key inside. Stolen cars have been shipped overseas for resale.
CRESSKILL, N.J.—Car thieves led borough police on a high-speed chase during the early morning hours of Feb. 14, reaching speeds of 85 mph as they fled south into Englewood, ultimately escaping once police terminated the pursuit.
The car—a white Jeep Wrangler stolen from a McGrath Drive residence—was later recovered in Newark. No suspects have been arrested.
Patrolman Niall Bresnan first noticed the vehicle traveling without headlights on Wilson Drive near Truman Drive. The suspects accelerated rapidly as they approached Bresnan’s patrol location.
“…Several males leaned back in the front seats to conceal their identity” as the car drove past, Bresnan wrote in a supplemental investigation report.
Bresnan lost sight of the vehicle, but his fellow Patrolman Stephen Wrightson was driving north on Hillside Avenue when he observed the vehicle passing Holy Angels School.
“The vehicle was traveling at a high rate of speed, crossing over the median, and did not have its headlights on…” Wrightson wrote. “I initiated my emergency vehicle lights and attempted to stop the vehicle. At this time, I was traveling at 64 mph behind the suspects’ vehicle.”
Suspects hit a dead end
With Patrolman Wrightson on their tail, the suspects turned on Engle Street, then Knoll Road, then made a left on Royden Road—a dead end street.
“The suspected vehicle then turned around and then began to drive towards my vehicle, passing me,” wrote Wrightson. “As they passed, I observed two black males wearing black ski masks and hoods. I turned my vehicle around and began to follow the vehicle as it drove back onto Knoll Road, heading south.”
Dangerous speeds
Fleeing from the Royden Road dead end, the suspects turned left onto Knoll Road, then onto Hudson Avenue. With Wrightson giving chase, they passed Patrolman Shawn Cole’s location at Hudson Avenue and Engle Street.
As the suspects turned left onto country road and sped off with Wrightson in pursuit, Cole turned right onto Engle Street, then onto Highwood Avenue, waiting for the suspects with emergency lights on.
The suspects blew past Cole’s location, and he joined Wrightson in the pursuit.
“Both patrol units trailed the suspect vehicle at approximately 60 mph with emergency lights and sirens activated,” Cole wrote.
The suspect turned right from County Road onto Dean Street.
While on Dean Street, Wrightson was able to radio in the vehicle’s license plate, which was registered to a Cresskill resident.
The suspects continued fleeing with officers in pursuit south on Dean Street reaching speeds between 75 and 85 mph.
As the pursuit reached East Linden Avenue and south Dean Street, Officer Bresnan ordered that the pursuit be terminated and Wrightson and Cole complied.
Investigating the theft
Cole traveled to the McGrath Drive residence where the car was registered, and was greeted by a homeowner at the front door, who confirmed that her husband’s white Jeep Wrangler was indeed missing from the driveway.
The husband presented two keys for the Jeep and stated those were the only keys for that vehicle.
Lt. Ted Cebulski told Northern Valley Press that detectives have speculated that a signal-relaying device may have been used by the thieves, and they believe that it is possible to remotely start an unlocked car using such a device if the key fob is in close proximity to the vehicle—even if it’s inside the residence.
With permission, officers checked the property for evidence, with assistance from three Tenafly police officers.
Neighboring residents with security cameras were identified and one confirmed they had a recording, which investigators later reviewed. The other resident did not answer knocks.
The vehicle was later recovered in Newark, according to police.
