Pursuit Of Latest Stolen Car Involves Aberdeen Police

MONMOUTH COUNTY, NJ — The latest car theft in Monmouth County this weekend involved an assist from Aberdeen police to state police who responded to an accident on the Garden State Parkway and pursued a second stolen car.

At approximately 2:10 p.m. Saturday, New Jersey state troopers responded to a motor vehicle crash on the Garden State Parkway northbound at milepost 117.6 in Hazlet, according to Sgt. Philip Curry of the New Jersey State Police.

While responding to the crash, troopers were informed that four suspects got out of the crashed BMW X4, which was disabled in the left lane, and fled on foot. The car was reported stolen from an owner in Totowa.

After a brief search of the area, troopers located and arrested a juvenile suspect on Holmdel Road in Holmdel and were notified that the Hazlet officers located and arrested two suspects in the parking lot of Bayshore Medical Center in Holmdel.

Troopers then learned that Aberdeen police were in pursuit of a green Lexus SUV that was reported stolen from a residence on Holmdel Road, allegedly by the fourth suspect.

The pursuit entered the Garden State Parkway northbound where troopers, with emergency lights and sirens on, attempted to stop the vehicle, but it failed to stop and continued traveling north.

While in pursuit of the Lexus, a state police vehicle was involved in a crash with two vehicles in the area of milepost 141.1 northbound in Union Township.

The trooper sustained minor injuries and was treated and released from an area hospital. Another driver sustained minor injuries but refused medical attention.

Two men and a juvenile from Essex County are in the Monmouth County jail after the Hazlet crash, state police said.

Dayvon Savage, 24, of West Orange; Unique Woodard, 22, of Irvington; and a juvenile of Newark, were charged with receiving stolen property, joyriding, eluding and obstruction. The juvenile was additionally charged with resisting arrest and hindering apprehension, state police said.

Savage and Woodard were in the Monmouth County Jail and the juvenile suspect was in the Middlesex County Juvenile Detention Center, pending a detention hearing, state police said.
The fourth suspect remains at large, Curry said.

To respond to the increase in car thefts in the area, Monmouth County Sheriff Shaun Golden has assigned six additional officers to the Monmouth/Ocean County Auto Theft Task Force. He has also called for exceptions to state bail reform policies to detain those charged in car thefts.

Golden said Monmouth County had 314 car thefts the first eight months of 2021 and 446 the first eight months of 2022. From January 2021 through August 2022, 100 individuals were committed to the Monmouth County Correctional Institution in connection to those auto thefts. Of those, 82 were released, 28 were re-arrested on similar charges. Nineteen of those re-arrested were again released. He said that, in addition, 56 individuals were arrested in connection to auto theft but released on a summons, and of them 35 were re-arrested on similar charges.