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Christopher Loehwing, 49, parked the smashed-up Charger in a shopping center lot outside his apartment more than a mile away following Wednesday night’s crash, Police Chief Dean Ackermann said.
Loehwing told officers who found him that he’d hit the pole after swerving to avoid a fox. He said he’d planned to call them about it before they showed up.
Moments earlier, a group of witnesses reported seeing Loehwing’s 2010 Dodge hit a pole on an otherwise quiet stretch in the 400 block of Maple Avenue near Clifton Place. The Charger got the worst of the impact, they said.
The driver then backed up, re-entered the roadway and headed south before turning onto Ackerman Avenue, the witnesses told police. The vehicle had heavy front-end damage and a flattened passenger-side tire, they said.
A Glen Rock officer found fresh tire tracks and smelled burning rubber on Ackermann Avenue.
The officer followed the tire marks north on Broad Street into Ridgewood, then onto East Ridgewood Avenue and Walnut Street before they ended on Franklin Avenue, the chief said.
A village police officer who was on foot patrol in the central business district spotted the Dodge moments earlier. The tire was “torn up” and the rim had “sparks coming off it,” the officer said.
Then came a call from a citizen who saw the car parked in the Village Shopping Center Lot on North Maple Avenue in Ridgewood.
The registration came back to Loehwing, who lives in an apartment complex overlooking the lot, Ackermann said.
Police gave Loehwing four summonses – for leaving the scene of a crash, failing to report an accident, driving with an expired license and driving an unsafe vehicle. They also told him to leave the car where it was and call for a tow.
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