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The store employee’s 2013 Mercedes Benz was warming up during Monday’s Arctic-like temperatures when at least two thieves jumped in and took off just after 9 p.m., Police Chief Kenneth Ehrenberg said.
Officer Anthony Mordaga spotted the stolen car headed south on the Garden State Parkway a short time later and chased it to Exit 147 and into East Orange, Ehrenberg said.
The Mercedes hit a parked car on South Orange Avenue and became disabled – at which point at least two people hopped out and ran, the chief said.
Mordaga grabbed one and, with the help of East Orange officers, took the resisting suspect in custody.
Ehrenberg identified him as Dashon Richardson, a 32-year-old repeat offender from Newark.
An East Orange officer was injured in the struggle and was taken to a nearby hospital, he said.
Richardson was out on bail after being arrested in Triangle, NY (Broome County) last October for giving police a false name after they said they caught him and a passenger with marijuana.
Six years ago, Richardson ran over a pedestrian while attempting to flee police in a stolen car through heavy traffic in Springfield, NJ, authorities said. They caught him after he tried to carjack another vehicle, they said.
This time, Richardson was charged with aggravated assault on a police officer, resisting arrest, eluding and auto theft.
He remained held Tuesday in the Bergen County Jail.
Authorities were still searching for the second suspect.
Ehrenberg asked that anyone who might have seen something or has information that could help detectives call Paramus PD at: (201) 262-3400 ext. 1110 or use the department’s TIPS app at www.paramuspolice.org.
The chief once again warned drivers “not to leave their cars running unoccupied and not to leave their key fobs in their vehicles.”
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