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Corey DeGroat, a 42-year-old career offender from Englewood, was taken in police custody to The Valley Hospital in Ridgewood after complaining of head and chest pain, Fair Lawn Police Sgt. Brian Metzler said.
He was later transported to the Bergen County Jail, where he faces charges that include burglary, theft, aggravated assault, resisting arrest and reckless driving, the sergeant said.
Police were called to the Garwood Road residence just after 6:45 p.m. New Year's Day by the homeowner, who is vacationing in Cancun and saw a masked burglar on a home surveillance app, Metzler said.
DeGroat -- whose criminal history stretches back nearly 25 years -- was sitting in a reclined seat of a 2016 Honda Accord parked on Gurney Terrace, around the corner, when Detectives Anthony Lugo and Brian Rypkema approached him, the sergeant said.
They ordered him out of the vehicle, but DeGroat started and floored it, hitting Rypkema, who sustained minor hand and arm injuries, Metzler said.
Officer Justin DiGuglielmo spotted the fleeing vehicle on Franciscan Way in Fair Lawn and chased it into Glen Rock, where it struck a tree while making a turn from Godfrey Terrace onto Gibson Place.
The Accord rolled onto its roof, landing on the front lawn of 39 Gibson Place, Metzler said.
DeGroat tried to run but was caught in the backyard, he said.
Glen Rock Police, Ridgewood Police & Bergen County Sheriff’s Office assisted with this incident, the sergeant said, adding that an initial report that DeGroat might have had two accomplices proved to be false.
DeGroat's arrest history include charges of aggravated assault on a police officer in Englewood -- in 1994.
Over the past 25 years, he's been arrested dozens of times, records show.
These include charges for three separate burglaries in North Haledon last February, cocaine possession following a 2017 Bergenfield drug raid, a Pascack Valley burglary spree two months later, and a Ramapo, NY burglary in 2014.
DeGroat spent six months in the Bergen County Jail last year on a host of charges out of municipalities including Englewood, Englewood Cliffs and Teaneck before being released on Aug. 29, 2018, records show.
Boyd A. Loving contributed to this account.
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