It began just before 6 p.m. Friday, when Officer Zachary Martin spotted the teen not wearing a helmet recklessly riding the green Kawasaki dirt bike with no license plates in the area of Mount Washington Drive and Vallely Road, Detective Sgt. Robert Anderson said.
He tried to pull the cycle over, but the teen kept going, Anderson said.
Sgt. Bruce Lawson soon joined the chase, which continued along Valley Road, Fenner Avenue, Broad and Hazel streets and several other roads into South Paterson before the rider led his pursuers back to Clifton, the sergeant said.
Although the officers briefly lost sight of the bike near the Clifton Plaza shopping center on westbound Route 46, Detective Lucas Gunther and Officer John Ferraro picked up the chase on Van Houten Avenue, he said.
After first speeding down Henoch Avenue and Mount Washington Drive, the teen turned onto Claverack Road, where the bike struck a parked vehicle.
Gunther and Ferraro grabbed the uninjured teen, who Anderson said was carrying a small amount of marijuana.
He was sent to the Essex County Juvenile Detention Center pending a hearing in the Family Division of Superior Court on a delinquency complaint accusing him of eluding and drug possession.
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