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Jarrett Bruce, 39, was initially released at the Shops at Riverside just off westbound Route 4 after Lt. Sean Briggs ran a computer check, found a mismatched VIN and impounded the 2022 Chevy Corvette in early April, Hackensack Police Capt. Michael Antista said.
Discovering that the ‘vette had been reported stolen, police had grounds to seek -- and obtain -- a search warrant. They found the drugs and cash inside the vehicle, said Antista, the officer in charge of the department.
Armed with an arrest warrant, the investigators searched in vain for Bruce, who up to then apparently had been working as a property manager.
Their luck changed on Tuesday, June 20, when Detectives Ray Donnerstag, Sergio Raneli and Pete Seretis and Sgt. John Knapp of the department’s Crime Suppression Bureau spotted Bruce behind the wheel of a 2020 Dodge Durango SRT.
They arrested him and quickly learned that the Durango had been reported stolen out of Woodbridge.
To say that Bruce is known to police is an understatement. He’s been arrested dozens of times in no fewer than a half-dozen towns in Bergen and Passaic alone over his entire adult life, beginning in 1983.
Although a good number of the offenses have been drug-related, Bruce has also been charged with violent crimes, including robbery and aggravated assault, as well as for various gun offenses.
He was also identified as a member of a next-generation “James Bond Gang” – a crew of burglars whose nickname became synonymous with kick-in break-ins at private homes primarily in New Jersey but also up and down the East Coast.
Bruce was arrested just last month in Hackensack on charges of receiving stolen property, altering a motor vehicle VIN, possession of bogus documents and credit card crime. A Superior Court judge in Hackensack released him from the Bergen County Jail less than 24 hours later, records show.
Bruce remained in the county lockup on Wednesday pending a first appearance in Central Judicial Processing Court on charges that include receiving stolen property, money laundering and cocaine possession, among other offenses.
Antista thanked the Englewood and New Jersey State police for their assistance.
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