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It was around 11 p.m. Wednesday, April 10, when Officer Michael Clifford spotted the Kia Soul in the area of Page Avenue and Lewandowski Street, Detective Lt. Vincent Auteri said.
The subcompact had been reported stolen out of Clifton four days earlier, he said.
Clifford tried to stop it but the 16-year-old driver from Passaic hit the gas and sped off on Page Avenue.
The officer pursued the vehicle through Lyndhurst, along Schuyler Avenue, and into North Arlington, where the driver turned down dead-ended Renner Place and hit a tree.
The three occupants bolted into a nearby backyard as Lyndhurst Sgt. Eric Cerrito and Officers Michael D’Alessandro and Sal Wartel, Detectives Michael Giangeruso and Steve Batista and several of their North Arlington colleagues converged on the area.
The youths – between 14 and 16 years old from Clifton, Garfield, and Passaic – stuck together and were quickly caught, Auteri said.
A search of the stolen vehicle turned up a .380-caliber handgun, a screwdriver, a utility knife and a license plate stolen from a similar vehicle in Lyndhurst, the lieutenant said.
Police signed delinquency against all three teens, charging them with theft, unlawful possession of a weapon, receiving stolen property, eluding, resisting arrest by flight and possession of burglary tools.
Two were sent to the Bergen County Juvenile Detention Center in Teterboro. The third was released to a parent.
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