Motor vehicle thefts Archives

DECAL PROGRAM TO FIGHT AUTO THEFTS

By michael o. allenHomepage, The RecordNo Comments

By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Wednesday, March 25, 1992

The Record (New Jersey) | 5 Star | SOUTH CENTRAL BERGEN YOUR TOWN RECORD |
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Police are asking residents to help them fight auto theft by registering their cars with the department and authorizing police to stop and search the cars if they see them on the road during the middle of the night.

Participants in the Combat Auto Theft program, which is voluntary and free, sign a consent form saying they do not drive their cars between 1 and 5 a.m., and that they authorize any law enforcement officer to stop and check if it is seen on the road during those hours, said Lt. Paul Romaine.

Residents receive a reflective yellow sticker bearing the letters CAT that they put in the rear, left-side car window.

Police have to have probable cause to stop a car and search it, Romaine said. The sticker is numbered and has information on the car’s owner.

The program is part of a statewide attempt to combat auto theft, Romaine said. “It’s a good program,” he said. “It protects the car owner.”

Interested residents have to register in person at the city’s police headquarters at 205 State St. between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. Monday through Friday. They must provide a valid New Jersey driver’s license and registration for the car. Participants can withdraw from the program at any time by writing the department and removing the sticker from their car windows.

For additional information call Romaine in the Hackensack Police Crime Prevention Bureau at 646-7725 or 646-7726.

Caption: PHOTO of Hackensack Police auto theft decal.

March 25, 1992

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3 NEWARK BOYS HELD IN CAR THEFTS AT MALLS; APPREHENDED AFTER CHASE IN TEANECK

By michael o. allenHomepage, The RecordNo Comments

Byline: By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Saturday, December 28, 1991

The Record (New Jersey) | All Editions | NEWS | Page A02

Three Newark youths drove a stolen car to Bergen Mall on Thursday, abandoned it in favor of two other cars, and were arrested when the cars collided in Teaneck after a chase on Route 4, police said.

The boys 15, 16, and 17 years old were charged with receiving stolen property and eluding police and were being held Friday in the Bergen County Juvenile Detention Center.

“It’s a gang,” Hackensack Deputy Police Chief John Aletta said. “Every year we get this. After questioning by youth officers, it was learned that they arrived at the mall together in a car stolen from Linden, which they left, and stole two other ones.”

About 2:20 p.m. Thursday, Hackensack Police Officer Mart Kobin heard a report of a theft of a 1990 Pontiac and chased a car matching that description on Route 4, Aletta said.

The car exited Route 4 at Queen Anne Road in Teaneck, where it crashed into a 1989 Chevrolet Cavalier, which was later determined to have been stolen from the Toys “R” Us parking lot adjacent to the Bergen Mall parking lot, where the Pontiac was stolen, he said.

The 17-year-old driver of the Pontiac and the two youths in the Cavalier abandoned the cars and fled on foot, Aletta said. They were arrested after a foot chase that ended on Minelli Place and Allan Court.

December 28, 1991

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AUTO-THEFT UNIT REVS INTO ACTION

By michael o. allenHomepage, The RecordNo Comments

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.

July 12, 1991

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