By David Gibson and Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writers | Wednesday, October 2, 1991
The Record (New Jersey) | 6 Star | NEWS | Page B03
A 24-year-old man stole a motorcycle in South Nyack, N.Y., on Tuesday, then led police on a chase across Bergen County before being arrested three hours later in Paterson, authorities said.
Christopher Rea, who faces numerous charges in Passaic County and New York, was being held in the Passaic County Jail in lieu of $35,000 bail on the New Jersey charges and on a detainer on the New York charges.
Bergen County Police Sgt. Paul Hamel said Rea was a blur through Bergen County as he darted on and off highways onto local roads on the powerful 1991 motorcycle. Although officers from several departments allegedly saw Rea, none came close enough to catch him.
Among the highways he was spotted on in Bergen were the Palisades Interstate Parkway, Route 4, Route 17, and Route 46, police said.
He was captured just past 2 p.m. after he rode onto Union Avenue in Totowa and was spotted by a Passaic County sheriff’s officer who had just heard a broadcast of the suspect’s description.
Sgt. Dennis Schlosser chased Rea, who fled at high speed, according to Sgt. Kathy Kryszko, a sheriff’s department spokeswoman.
Kryszko did not elaborate on the speeds reached during the chase. But she said Rea drove quickly through red lights and stop signs as he led Schlosser on a three-mile slalom down Union Avenue, onto Preakness Avenue in Paterson, over to Front Street, and finally to Spruce Street by the Great Falls.
There, Kryszko said, Rea abandoned the motorcycle and plunged into the Passaic River. Schlosser had alerted other authorities, however, and officers from the Sheriff’s Department and the Passaic County Prosecutor’s Office persuaded Rea to swim to the riverbank and surrender.
No one was injured in the chase, Kryszko said. She said Rea gave addresses in North Bergen and Weehawken, but said his home base was in Daytona Beach, Fla.
South Nyack Police Chief Alan Colsey said when Rea returns to his town, the charges will include burglary, criminal mischief, grand larceny, resisting arrest, criminal possession of stolen property, and about 10 motor vehicle violations.
He was charged in Totowa with one criminal count of reckless eluding. He faces a similar charge in Paterson, as well as charges of possession of stolen property, possession of burglary tools the screwdriver used to steal the motorbike and resisting arrest by fleeing.
Keywords: MOTOR VEHICLE; VIOLATION; NEW YORK STATE; BC; PC; POLICE
Caption: PHOTO – KLAUS-PETER STEITZ / THE RECORD – Officer Bryan Dalton radioing information on a stolen motorcycle that police chased from New York to Paterson.
ID: 17356955 | Copyright © 1991, The Record (New Jersey)
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