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Officer Joseph Applegate spotted the 2018 Volkswagen sedan moving erratically on westbound Route 46 near the Stagecoach Motel shortly after midnight Thursday, Detective Sgt. James Donatello said.
A computer check showed the vehicle belonged to a 67-year-old Bogota man who'd recently died.
Applegate summoned backup units while stopping the vehicle on Huyler Street, Donatello said.
Officers immediately recognized the driver, Barry Green, 52, of Paterson, who was suspected in a Jan. 27 daytime home burglary just up the street, the sergeant said.
Green, who was driving without a license, has a criminal history stretching back more than 30 years. It includes arrests and convictions for burglary and theft, among other offenses, as well as a November 1990 conviction for sexual assault in New York State, records show.
Green had only just been released from state custody in January after three separate stretches over two years for burglary convictions and parole violations.
His passengers – all from Paterson, as well -- included his girlfriend, Amanda Tintle, 31, Donatello said.
Tintle, who is pregnant with Green’s child, has a history of arrests for prostitution, robbery, shoplifting and drug offenses in Passaic County, records show.
Another passenger, parolee Lee Truss, 36, like Green, is a registered sex offender.
Records show Truss was convicted in 2003 of having sexual contact with a 15-year-old girl when he was 18. He has also served time for aggravated assault, weapons offenses and parole violations, according to state criminal records.
The third passenger, Katherine Berg, 31, has a drug-related history of arrests in New Jersey and New York, records show.
South Hackensack police charged all four occupants with receiving stolen property. They released the passengers pending court hearings under New Jersey’s 2017 bail reform law.
Green, meanwhile, was sent to the Bergen County Jail after giving a statement to Detective Brian Kropp that led police to the proceeds from the January burglary, Donatello said.
The items were recovered Thursday from a jewelry store in Paterson, the sergeant said.
"It's a nice feeling to be able to return stolen property to its rightful owner," he said.
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