A Few Clouds 24°
Police & Fire
Unlicensed, Uninsured Driver Climbs Out, Walks Off, Gets 14 Tickets After Cliffside Crash Unlicensed, Uninsured Driver Climbs Out, Walks Off, Gets 14 Tickets After Cliffside Crash
Unlicensed, Uninsured Driver Climbs Out, Walks Off, Gets 14 Tickets After Cliffside Crash An out-of-state driver with no license, registration or insurance was apparently intoxicated when she rear-ended a pickup truck at a busy Cliffside Park intersection, then climbed out of her overturned SUV and walked away, authorities said. Caitlin Riggs, 36, of Wakefield, RI was headed south on Anderson Avenue at Edgewater Road when her 2015 Nissan Versa slammed into a 2011 Dodge Ram shortly after 10 p.m. Monday, Oct. 9, Deputy Police Chief Vincent Capano said. The Versa landed on its roof outside the A.K. Macagna Funeral Home, while the pickup had its bed crumpled and a tire flattened. …

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by Jerry DeMarco
Business
Bergen County Doughnut Shop Replacing Shuttered Hoboken Indian Spot Bergen County Doughnut Shop Replacing Shuttered Hoboken Indian Spot
Bergen County Doughnut Shop Replacing Shuttered Hoboken Indian Spot Dipped Donuts is expanding throughout North Jersey. The donut shop, which opened in Cliffside Park in 2020, announced it is opening Dipped n' Smashed in Hoboken at 91 Washington Street. The restaurant promises to offer build your own donuts, smashed burgers, specialty shakes and hot dogs.  An opening date has not been announced. The restaurant is replacing Curry Up Now, an Indian street food franchise, which had been at the location since early 2020.

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by Sam Barron
Police & Fire
Grandfather Struck, Killed By Fellow Senior Parishioner Outside Fairview Church Grandfather Struck, Killed By Fellow Senior Parishioner Outside Fairview Church
Grandfather Struck, Killed By Fellow Senior Parishioner Outside Fairview Church A 77-year-old grandfather from Ridgefield was laid to rest following a funeral at a Fairview church where he was fatally struck by a runaway sedan a week earlier. Athanios Dimitriou and a 56-year-old companion from North Bergen were having lunch under a canopy in the parking lot of the Ascension Greek Orthodox Church on Anderson Avenue when both were struck by a BMW 328 shortly before 11:30 a.m. Sept. 11. The driver – a fellow parishioner who, coincidentally, is also 77 – had accidentally hit the gas and backed into them, Fairview Police Capt. Michael Martic said. Detective Sgt. Anthony Sc…

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by Jerry DeMarco
Police & Fire
Cliffside Park Basement Resident Who Lives Near Preschool Released On Child Porn Charges Cliffside Park Basement Resident Who Lives Near Preschool Released On Child Porn Charges
Cliffside Park Basement Resident Who Lives Near Preschool Released On Child Porn Charges A man who lives in a basement apartment a few doors from a preschool in Cliffside Park was released by a judge pending trial on charges of collecting child pornography. Detectives with the Bergen County prosecutor’s Cyber Crimes Unit seized Levon Dayermenjian, a 59-year-old divorced jeweler, during a raid last week on his Lafayette Avenue residence. The apartment is a little over 50 yards from the Greater Bergen Community Action’s Cliffside Park Head Start facility. Dayermenjian “used the Internet to view, download, and possess items depicting nude and/or sexually explicit prepubescent ch…

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by Jerry DeMarco
Police & Fire
Cliffside Park Detective Nabs Man For Snatching $1,100 Worth Of Meat From Parked Delivery Truck Cliffside Park Detective Nabs Man For Snatching $1,100 Worth Of Meat From Parked Delivery Truck
Cliffside Park Detective Nabs Man For Snatching $1,100 Worth Of Meat From Parked Delivery Truck A Cliffside Park detective ID'd a man who with a partner took nearly $1,100 worth of meat from a delivery truck in broad daylight, authorities said. The truck was parked off the corner of Anderson and Washington avenues when a dark-colored SUV with both thieves pulled up shortly after 12:30 p.m. Friday, Aug. 18, Deputy Police Chief Vincent Capano said. One served as the lookout while the other emptied the truck in multiple trips, the deputy chief said. Detective Jason Pinzone identified the driver as Edgardo J. Gil Li, a 34-year-old Peruvian national with a prior record who most recently l…

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by Jerry DeMarco
Police & Fire
Man Suffers Head Trauma After Being Struck By Rolling Car He Was Riding In: North Bergen PD Man Suffers Head Trauma After Being Struck By Rolling Car He Was Riding In: North Bergen PD
Man Suffers Head Trauma After Being Struck By Rolling Car He Was Riding In: North Bergen PD A man in his early 70s suffered head trauma after being struck by a rolling vehicle that he had been riding in Wednesday evening, July 12 in North Bergen, police said. The Cliffside Park resident got out of the vehicle and walked around the back of the car at 1600 71st Street, around 7:05 p.m., North Bergen Police Capt. Jorge Raposo said.  The vehicle rolled back knocking the man to the ground, causing him to hit his head, Raposo said. The man is believed to have suffered a concussion, the captain said.

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by Cecilia Levine
Police & Fire
Drunken Man With .327 BAC Puts Fist Through Restaurant Window, Bleeds On Cliffside Police Drunken Man With .327 BAC Puts Fist Through Restaurant Window, Bleeds On Cliffside Police
Drunken Man With .327 BAC Puts Fist Through Restaurant Window, Bleeds On Cliffside Police A drunken man who put his fist through a Guatemalan restaurant window bled all over Cliffside Park police while trying to fight them, authorities said. Marcus Camargo Machado, a 39-year-old Brazilian national who lives in Palisades Park, recorded a staggering .327 blood-alcohol level, Deputy Police Chief Vincent Capano said. Machado also told EMS workers that he’s HIV positive, forcing bloodwork at Palisade Medical Center in North Bergen that found he isn’t, the deputy chief said. Machado was angry about something when he shattered the window at La Estancia at the corner of Palisade and Wa…

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by Jerry DeMarco
Police & Fire
SMH: Released Burglar Returns To Cliffside For His Stuff, Gets Busted For Gun, Drugs SMH: Released Burglar Returns To Cliffside For His Stuff, Gets Busted For Gun, Drugs
SMH: Released Burglar Returns To Cliffside For His Stuff, Gets Busted For Gun, Drugs Only under New Jersey’s bail reform law can an ex-con charged with a string of burglaries be released by a judge before police even have a chance to search his car. And maybe only in New Jersey will the just-released defendant go to police headquarters to retrieve his things and immediately be arrested. That’s because while ex-con Ralph Lloyd Wilson was passing through the revolving door of justice, Cliffside Park detectives were finding a gun and drugs in the rented vehicle. It began with Wilson’s arrest last week by police in neighboring Fort Lee. He'd burglarized a row of businesse…

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by Jerry DeMarco
Police & Fire
GOTCHA! Fleeing Cliffside Business Burglar Nabbed By Fort Lee PD, Claims Sovereignty GOTCHA! Fleeing Cliffside Business Burglar Nabbed By Fort Lee PD, Claims Sovereignty
Gotcha! Fleeing Cliffside Business Burglar Nabbed By Fort Lee PD, Claims Sovereignty A burglar who hit several downtown Cliffside Park businesses overnight Wednesday was captured a half-dozen blocks away by Fort Lee police who were part of a dragnet. 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 call…

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by Jerry DeMarco
Police & Fire
Authorities Probe Late-Night Fire That Damaged Edgewater Townhouse Authorities Probe Late-Night Fire That Damaged Edgewater Townhouse
Authorities Probe Late-Night Fire That Damaged Edgewater Townhouse Edgewater police got everyone out safely after a house fire ignited overnight, responders said. Officer Victor Lopez Jr. ushered the residents to safety before flames blew out the front windows of the Undercliff Avenue residence at the top of North Street as Tuesday night turned to Wednesday morning, June 21. Borough firefighters had the main body of the two-alarmer knocked down in minutes. Firefighters from Cliffside Park and Fort Lee provided mutual aid. The scene was cleared shortly before 2:30 a.m. No injuries were reported in the overnight fire Wednesday, June 21 on Undercliff Av…

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by Jerry DeMarco
Police & Fire
RAISING A STINK: Trash Mountain Burns In Middle Of Cliffside Park Intersection RAISING A STINK: Trash Mountain Burns In Middle Of Cliffside Park Intersection
Raising A Stink: Trash Mountain Burns In Middle Of Cliffside Park Intersection The thing with garbage fires is that you never know what might be inside. Cliffside Park firefighters hit an overnight garbage truck fire from all sides -- including from above -- before dawn Thursday. There were no causes for concern nor any injuries in the mishap, which left a huge pile of smoldering trash in the middle of the intersection at Anderson and Columbia avenues after igniting at 1:10 a.m. June 15. Firefighters used an aerial ladder while also drenching the flames with hand lines from the street.  A massive cleanup kept borough DPW workers with front loaders busy through the …

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by Jerry DeMarco
Lifestyle
North Jersey Matchmaker Takes Talents To New TLC Show 'Match Me Abroad' North Jersey Matchmaker Takes Talents To New TLC Show 'Match Me Abroad'
North Jersey Matchmaker Takes Talents To New TLC Show 'Match Me Abroad' Nina Kharoufeh has been helping her friends and family with her matchmaking skills. Now she's taking her talents overseas. Kharoufeh, a North Bergen native who grew up in Cliffside Park,is one of the matchmakers on TLC's new dating show "Match Me Abroad," which helps people find love overseas. On the show, Kharoufeh is tasked with helping Stanika and Mark, two Americans, find love while in Morocco. "TLC reached out to me, they saw I was doing my thing," Kharoufeh, who also performs standup comedy, said. "I had never done something like this and I enjoy a challenge." After helping her frie…

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by Sam Barron