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Gotcha! Fair Lawn Police Interrupt Burglary, Fish Suspect Out Of Passaic River

Fair Lawn police who interrupted an overnight burglary captured one of the fleeing bandits after he hopped into the Passaic River, authorities said.

Yaniel Diaz Mateo

Yaniel Diaz Mateo

Photo Credit: Boyd A. Loving (file photo) / INSET: BCJ

The burglars scattered as police arrived at the corner of Fair Lawn Avenue and River Road shortly before 3 a.m. Saturday, Sept. 30, Sgt. Eric Eleshewich said.

It was around 6:30 a.m. when officers spotted one of them about a quarter-mile up River Road, the sergeant said.

Seeing them, he ran down to the river, where the officers captured him, Eleshewich said.

Yaniel Diaz Mateo, a 21-year-old Dominican national who lives in Paterson, was charged with robbery, burglary, theft, resisting arrest and aggravated assault on a police officer, the sergeant said.

He remained held Monday in the Bergen County Jail.

Mateo spent nearly a month in the lockup following a July 22 arrest in Hawthorne for receiving stolen property and resisting. A judge freed him on Aug. 18 pending further court action, records show.

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