Rash Of Car Thefts Reported In Old Tappan

OLD TAPPAN, NJ — A stolen vehicle and two attempted car thefts were reported out of Old Tappan over a 15-hour time span earlier this week, Police Chief Joseph Tracy said.

A first call came on 6:09 p.m. on Tuesday reporting that a man tried to steal a Range Rover parked in front of an open garage door at a house on the east side of town. A resident saw the man, who was dressed in all black wearing a ski mask and gloves, and chased him down the driveway with a rake. The man then got into the rear passenger seat of a BMW with heavily tinted windows, police said.

The BMW was reported stolen out of Spring Lake, and was used in three other attempted vehicular thefts just across the border in New York, police said.

A second incident occurred at 5:15 a.m. on Wednesday, when a 2022 BMW was reported stolen from the driveway of a house on the east side of town; the vehicle was left unlocked with the key fob inside. Surveillance video from the house showed two black men walking up the driveway to get into the vehicle, which was last seen entering onto Garden State Parkway southbound in Washington Township, police said.

And the third incident occurred at 8:37 a.m. on Wednesday, when a black man wearing a black hoodie and black ski mask, tried to steal a Mercedes Benz from an open garage door at a house on the west side of town, police said.

Interrupted by the resident's 14-year-old son, the man ran from the garage to get into a waiting Chevrolet Corvette convertible, which was seen traveling at a high speed in River Vale and Paramus shortly after the theft attempt, police said.

Residents, Chief Tracy said, should always close and lock vehicle doors even when they are home and take the key fob inside no matter where or for how long the vehicle is parked.