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Detectives from the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey had just found the Range Rover on the Newark/Irvington border after it was taken from Terminal C when the driver of a shiny white Jaguar XJ pulled up and parked nearby, a source with knowledge of the incident said.
As the officers watched, the driver got out and hopped into a Lexus parked in front of the Range Rover.
They quickly pulled over the Lexus and arrested the Georgia driver, as well as his passenger, who gave them a Jersey City address. Their identities couldn’t immediately be determined.
Officers from various agencies suspect the incident could be a break in the investigation of an auto theft ring that has been working along the East Coast.
New Jersey State Police attack these types of thefts hard — to the point that crew members often drive stolen vehicles to destinations such as Baltimore to be shipped overseas, rather than risk taking them to Port Newark or Port Elizabeth.
The cars being stolen include those driven by people who drop off or pick up passengers at the airport while leaving their engines running — creating easy targets for quick-moving thieves, law enforcement officers say.
Even with uniformed officers around, there’s little they can do safely once someone has jumped in and peeled out.
Nearly a dozen have been taken from the airport and area hotels the past six months.
It’s nothing new for one of the leading crimes of opportunity. News stories stretch back for decades of supposed spikes in the number of thefts from airports nationwide — when, in reality, law enforcement officers say, it happens all the time.
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