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City police said they chased down and caught 36-year-old Ibn Jabbar Lee a short time after the Jan. 15 break-in.
Authorities said Lee first broke into a Thornton Road home near the Tenafly and Englewood Cliffs borders. A housekeeper who was home alone said she heard the doorbell ring but didn’t answer it — then saw the 6-foot-5-inch, 250-pound Lee coming through a set of outside doors.
Lee was on federal probation for a 2002 conviction of conspiracy to commit murder for hire, records show.
After spotting the housekeeper, police said, Lee turned and ran. He then went to a nearby Johnson Avenue home, rang the doorbell and pushed in the homeowner when she opened the door, authorities said.
The woman told police he assaulted her — saying that he had a gun — while leading her throughout the house, stuffing cash, jewelry and other valuables in bags. He then ordered her into a room and instructed her to wait before coming out, said the woman, who immediately called police.
Soon after, Englewood Police Officer Rhakeem Stennett said he spotted Lee darting across Booth Avenue and through several backyards, still carrying the bags of loot. Police from Tenafly, Englewood Cliffs and Englewood flooded the area and boxed Lee in, Englewood Detective Capt. Timothy Torell said.
Suddenly, Englewood Officer Matthew Zeuner spotted him and took off after him.
Zeuner tackled him, as other officers moved in — among them, Englewood Detective Adolfo Gutierrez, Englewood Cliffs Sgt. Collin Ford & Officer Daniel O’Shea and Englewood Cliffs Police Chief Michael Cioffi.
All of the stolen proceeds home were recovered, Torell said.
The six-count indictment returned yesterday charges Lee with “inflicting or threatening bodily injury” to the Johnson Avenue woman with “what appeared to be a deadly weapon.”
It says he “unlawfully confined her for a substantial period of time or removed her to another location to terrorize her or another, and failed to release her unharmed before he was apprehended.”
It also accuses him of trying to break into the Thornton Road home and of “threatening physical force or violence” against Zeuner, the Englewood police officer who caught him.
Lee had his original $1 million bail reduced to $750,000. He remained in the Bergen County Jail.
MUGSHOT: Courtesy ENGLEWOOD PD
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