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Xhonatan Gaba of Garfield ran off, then stole a 2016 Toyota Camry from around the corner, Police Chief James Walters said.
Hours later, police in Sparta stopped the Camry and seized him, the chief said.
Gaba had been arrested twice in a span of 10 days last month in Garfield and Little Ferry -- and was released under New Jersey's bail reform law.
He was back in Little Ferry this past Friday night when a Redneck Avenue resident and his cousin caught him rummaging through a vehicle in their driveway, the chief said.
They chased Gaba before he turned, pointing something and threatened to kill them, Walters said. So they backed off.
"A short time later we had a car stolen on Franklin Street," the chief said.
The car door had been left unlocked, with a spare key inside, he said.
Police in Sparta stopped Gaba at 3:40 a.m. Saturday, then turned him over to their Little Ferry colleagues.
They charged him with burglary and making terroristic threats and sent him to the Bergen County Jail, where he remained Tuesday.
Gaba had tried talking his way out of another arrest last month when a Little Ferry police officer caught him breaking into a pickup truck, Walters said.
SEE: Little Ferry PD: Officer Nabs Garfield Repeat Offender, 20, In Burglarized Pickup
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