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The Park Avenue homeowner chased the intruder while a family member dialed 911 shortly before 2 p.m., Westwood Police Chief Michael Pontillo said.
Police from Westwood and Hillsdale were on the scene instantly and nabbed ex-con Sean Byrne, 51, of Union City, along the railroad tracks across from an apartment complex on Valley Avenue, the chief said.
Westwood police charged him with attempted carjacking, burglary, resisting arrest and criminal mischief. He was sent to the Bergen County Jail to await a detention hearing in Central Judicial Processing Court.
Additional charges are possible, Pontillo said.
Byrne has an adult criminal history that began when he was 18 and includes nearly 20 convictions in three states, as well as nearly a decade served in state prison.
He's been arrested in Bergen, Passaic, Essex, Camden, Morris and Middlesex counties, as well as in Florida and elsewhere, over the past 40 or so years, records show.
Charges include burglary, robbery, aggravated assault and eluding, as well as drug and weapons offenses and credit card crimes.
Byrne pleaded guilty in 2014 to three burglaries in Maywood and one each in Hackensack, Hasbrouck Heights, Park Ridge, Westwood and Wood-Ridge.
The judge who sentenced him at the time called Byrne an almost certain risk to return to crime after he completed his prison term.
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