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.—A Laurel Lane resident taking her dog for a walk just before 11 p.m. on Sunday, Feb. 16 was surprised to find her family’s Lexus RX-350 missing from the driveway.
The resident also observed her family’s Audi Q3, which was also parked in the driveway, had an open driver’s side door.
“At this point, she closed the open door and retreated into her house,” Sgt. Jeremy Luciano wrote in an operations report.
The resident reviewed Ring camera footage and it showed a male walking along the sidewalk from Brodway south on Laurel Lane.
“He appears to stop at the corner and look backwards before slowly proceeding south on the sidewalk,” Luciano wrote. “The camera is unclear and does not show him come back to the vehicles.”
The man appeared to be wearing a hooded jacket and a hat, Luciano wrote.
The vehicle was unlocked and the resident was only in possession of one key for the vehicle. She was unsure where the other key was because it had been missing for a while, he wrote.
The neighborhood was canvassed for additional security camera videos, and the car was reported stolen to regional law enforcement partners.
The vehicle was recovered in Newark just a short time after it was discovered stolen on Feb. 17 at 2:43 a.m.