A contractor alerted police to the Knickerbocker Road site, which was then processed for fingerprints by the Bergen County Sheriff’s Bureau of Criminal Identification.
Investigators were meeting with the homeowner to determine what was taken when Detective Sgt. Wayne Hall found 27-year-old Nicholas Maziot sleeping in a separate garage apartment in back, Detective Capt. Michael deMoncada said.
“A crack pipe and evidence of drug use was also discovered during the arrest,” he said.
Maziot – who was wanted for skipping court in several Bergen towns – broke into the garage at night, then “searched the bedrooms and storage area for valuables,” deMoncada said.
All told, he took more than $75,000 worth of jewelry, clothing and a bicycle frame, the captain said.
A judge ordered that Maziot remained held in the Bergen County Jail following a detention hearing on charges of burglary, theft, receiving stolen property, criminal trespassing and possession of drug paraphernalia in Tenafly.
Maziot, whose criminal history in Bergen County stretches back his entire adult life, also had outstanding warrants out of Bergenfield, Cresskill, Englewood Cliffs, Leonia and Mahwah – as well as Tenafly.
Tenafly police were trying to find the stolen items.
deMoncada asked that anyone with information that could help contact borough detectives at (201) 568-5100.
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