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Township police reported the 2001 Honda Civic stolen from outside the Family Dollar store on Teaneck Road around 3 p.m. Tuesday, Deputy Police Chief John A. Faggello said.
The owner had left keys and a cellphone inside it, Faggello said.
About an hour later, Joseph Murphy, 34, of Scranton crashed the Civic into a dry cleaners van on Knickerbocker Road at High Street in Closter, borough Detective Lt. Vincent Aiello said.
Police from several Northern Valley towns helped their Closter colleagues set up a perimeter.
Moments later, Aiello said, police found Murphy walking on Demarest Avenue. He apparently had been hiding in an attached garage at a Pine Street home, the lieutenant said.
Closter police charged Murphy with burglary and receiving stolen property and turned him over to their Teaneck colleagues, who charged him with theft.
Murphy remained held Wednesday in the Bergen County Jail pending a first appearance in Central Judicial Processing Court in Hackensack.
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