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Officers from no fewer than seven other law enforcement agencies converged on Cliffside's business district after the intruder entered an unlocked sidewalk cellar door on Lawton Avenue and began going from business to business around 1:30 a.m. June 21, Deputy Police Chief Vincent Capano said.
The owner of Dipped Donuts on Anderson Avenue got a burglar alert on his phone, saw what was happening on a surveillance camera and called police, the deputy chief said.
The burglar -- identified as Ralph Wilson, 24, of Brooklyn -- emerged from the sidewalk entrance and took off on foot just as police were arriving, Capano said.
Fort Lee police spotted him a half-mile north on busy Columbia Avenue near Abbott Boulevard, he said.
Wilson dropped the bag he was carrying -- containing $160 in stolen cash and burglar tools -- and hot-footed it east toward Palisade Avenue, the deputy chief said.
The officers quickly had Wilson in custody, then turned him over to their Cliffside Park colleagues.
Wilson, who at 24 already has numerous arrests on his record, claimed to be a Moorish sovereign citizen, which he claimed should keep him from being charged.
The FBI describes sovereigns as "anti-government extremists who believe that even though they physically reside in this country, they are separate or 'sovereign' from the United States."
Originally associated with white supremacism and antisemitism, there are now hundreds of thousands of them who claim special rights and privileges that put them them beyond any authority. It never means much in the end.
Although some have become domestic terrorists, clashing with authorities at all levels over their refusal to obey laws and government regulations, most Moorish sovereigns are non-violent activists, tax protestors and conspiracy theorists.
Many are simply trying to get out of debt, avoid having to register their vehicles or trying to duck license fees and traffic tickets.
None has ever succeeded in court, authorities note.
Wilson had an unspecified psychological episode that required police to escort him to Bergen New Bridge Medical Center in Paramus for an evaluation before he's sent to the county jail to await an initial court hearing.
He's charged with burglary, possession of burglar tools, theft, receiving stolen property, obstruction and illegal possession of prescription pills.
Capano thanked police from Fairview, Edgewater, Fort Lee, Guttenberg, Secaucus and Ridgefield, as well as the Bergen County Sheriff's K-9 Unit, for converging quickly on the scene.
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