BY TOM CLANCEY
OF NORTHERN VALLEY PRESS
BERGEN COUNTY, N.J.— Three Norwood residents are the latest victims in a crime spree of car thefts occurring around Bergen County.
The three thefts occurred east of Piermont Road overnight between Dec. 1 and Dec. 2, Norwood Sgt. Christian Federici told Northern Valley Press. A fourth resident reported that someone entered their vehicle, but did not remove anything, he said.
Police recovered all the vehicles, said Federici, one within the borough and two in Newark. Anyone with information or surveillance footage related to any these thefts are asked to contact the Norwood Police Department detective bureau at (201) 750-8623.
Last week, Northern Valley Press reported on a crime spree of stolen vehicles. People are leaving their car keys or key fobs in their unlocked cars, prompting a rash of over 30 stolen vehicles in about a month, Bergen County Prosecutor Gurbir Grewal said in a public alert issued on Nov. 27.
“Residents are urged to keep their vehicles locked and to remove key fobs from parked vehicles,” Federici said, echoing the county prosecutor’s earlier statements.
Grewal also warned residents not to leave any valuable items in plain view inside the vehicle.
While the crimes continue, police have made several arrests. In July, the state attorney general’s office announced it secured indictments against four individuals alleging they conspired to steal numerous luxury cars in eight state municipalities, including Closter.
The case offered a glimpse into what Attorney General Christopher S. Porrino said was “big business for these defendants,” saying they “allegedly scoured wealthy residential areas for the luxury cars they prized, typically stealing them right from their owners’ driveways.” Afterwards, they allegedly parked the cars in quiet lots, before later selling them domestically or loading them onto shipping containers for overseas sales, Porrino described.
Englewood Cliffs Police recently told Northern Valley Press that they caught a suspect while looking out for this specific type of crime on Nov. 29.
That night, when Englewood Cliffs Police Sgt. Ronald Waldt turned around his patrol car to check out a suspicious vehicle in the early morning hours, the car took off down Fairview Avenue at a high rate of speed, evading capture, said Police Chief Michael Cioffi.
But borough officers stayed on the scene, converging on the neighborhood with the help of a Bergen County Sheriff’s Department K9 unit. Checking neighborhood cars, looking for fingerprints in the early morning condensation, they soon found their mark—a 21-year-old Newark man was hiding inside a car on Summit Street with the proceeds from the burglaries of three nearby cars, Cioffi said.
The suspect found in the car is charged with burglary to auto and possession of stolen property, said Cioffi, declining to release his name.
The incident came a month after borough police recovered a car in an Irvington parking lot, with the help of a GPS tracking device, that had been stolen on Oct. 26. The car was stolen from a residence, recovered and returned within the period of 48 hours, McDermott said.
Since July, Northern Valley Press has reported car thefts indigents in Closter, Cresskill, Demarest, Haworth, Norwood and Tenafly. A map provided by the Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office shows there has been at least one recent incident in Alpine.