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The owner left the black 2012 black Mitsubishi Lancer idling outside the Route 17 Exxon mini mart when 49-year-old Bruce T. Winn got behind the wheel just before 10 p.m. Monday night and took off, Ramsey Police Sgt. Mike Parise told Daily Voice on Tuesday.
Paramus police issued an alert for the car and the driver, who was described as having long dark hair.
Parise was monitoring traffic on the highway's northbound side near the Shannon Rose restaurant when Winn, of Thompson, PA, drove by.
The sergeant stopped the car and took Winn into custody.
Winn was being held on $10,000 bail in the Bergen County Jail, charged with receiving stolen property. More charges were expected from Paramus police.
The night before, Wyckoff police said they found Winn under the influence of drugs and carrying heroin sitting in disabled car with a shredded tire "as if the vehicle had struck something," according to Wyckoff Police Chief Benjamin Fox.
A 50-year-old passenger from the Bronx who was was passed out in the back seat was taken to the hospital because of the extent of his drugged condition, Fox said.
Winn, meanwhile, was arrested after officers found nine bags of heroin in the car, along with two bags of possible marijuana laced with PCP.
He was charged with driving while under the influence of drugs, possessing heroin and PCP and having drugs in a motor vehicle, and received several traffic summosnes, the chief said.
"There was nobody in the area to release him to and he was housed in the Wyckoff Police Department jail cell," Fox said. "During that time he made threats against the officers and acted erratically.
He was taken to Bergen Regional Medical Center in Paramus for observation before being released.
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