By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Friday, July 12, 1991
The Record (New Jersey) | Four Star B | NEWS | Page B01
There’s no shortage of business for Bergen County’s stolen-car detectives.
The Sheriff’s Department auto-theft unit has been in operation four months, but already it has recovered 47 vehicles valued at more than $600,000 and arrested 23 suspects.
“We had high expectations that it would be a success, and it certainly has met all our expectations,” said Capt. Frank Benedetto, head of the department’s detective bureau. “But we realize that we are fighting a never-ending battle in the area of auto thefts.”
The program, begun March 15, has two detectives, Joseph Cacciatore and David Moody, assigned full-time to auto-theft cases. They have received about 70 cases referred by local police departments, informants, and insurance companies, said Bergen County Sheriff Jack Terhune.
The unit, Terhune said, “is solely dedicated to automobile thefts, which the municipal departments are not able to do.”
According to the state Uniform Crime Report, 4,109 automobiles were stolen in Bergen County in 1990, a 12 percent increase over 1989. Before Cacciatore and Moody began working full-time, the Sheriff’s Department had not been involved in auto-theft investigations in Bergen County for several years, Benedetto said.
In their most recent case, Cacciatore and Moody lured a Paterson man into his probation officer’s Passaic office and arrested him for receiving stolen property.
He is a suspect in a car-theft ring that authorities said took vehicle identification numbers and titles from junk cars and put them onto similar stolen cars.
People with information about a stolen car are urged to call their local police department or a state toll-free hotline on stolen cars 1-(800) 447-HEAT (4328).
Keywords: BERGEN COUNTY; POLICE; MOTOR VEHICLE; THEFT
Caption: COLOR PHOTO – LINDA CATAFFO / THE RECORD – Detectives David Moody, left, and Joseph Cacciatore checking automobile identification numbers. They are assigned to the auto-theft unit of the Bergen County Sheriff’s Department, which has recovered 47 vehicles in its first four months.
ID: 17349244 | Copyright © 1991, The Record (New Jersey)
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