Off duty Fair Lawn officer nabs wanted man

YOU READ IT HERE FIRST: Proving once again that police are never off duty, Fair Lawn Officer Edward Egan summoned several officers to a neighborhood where he said he saw a backpack-wearing stranger scoping out houses. Police found burglar tools — and a trio of active arrest warrants.

Jerry DeMarco

12/31/2011 11:52 p.m.

Egan followed the man until backup arrived. He and two uniformed officers then grabbed him as he walked into Fair Lawn Cemetery.

Erick R. Zimmerman, 24, gave them some ID — which turned up a warrant out of Parsippany, where he lives, in addition to one each from Trenton and Pompton Plains, Police Sgt. Richard Schultz said. So they took him into custody.

Inside the bag they found a combination screwdriver, straight edge cutting shears, set of hex-metric Allen tools and a pry-tack hammer. Zimmerman said been scavenging for discarded television sets.

He was taken to the Bergen County Jail, where he is being held on $2,500 bail pending a Jan. 11 Municipal Court hearing in Fair Lawn.

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