Light Rain Fog/Mist 38°
News
Mayor: Fears Of Fatality Unfounded In Furious Fire That Destroyed Fort Lee Apartment Building Mayor: Fears Of Fatality Unfounded In Furious Fire That Destroyed Fort Lee Apartment Building
Mayor: Fears Of Fatality Unfounded In Furious Fire That Destroyed Fort Lee Apartment Building UPDATE: No serious injuries were reported in a raging fire that destroyed an apartment building near the George Washington Bridge. Two volunteer firefighters were hospitalized with relatively minor injuries from the six-alarm fire on Hudson Terrace in Fort Lee, which ignited Saturday afternoon, continued through the night and collapsed portions of the five-story brick building. Authorities initially feared the worst when a resident was unaccounted for, Mayor Mark Sokolich said, but that tenant apparently is out of the country. The Red Cross had put up about a dozen families at local hote…

SHARE

by Jerry DeMarco
News
Fire Rages At Fort Lee Apartment Building Fire Rages At Fort Lee Apartment Building
Fire Rages At Fort Lee Apartment Building UPDATE: No serious injuries were reported in a raging fire that destroyed an apartment building near the George Washington Bridge. Two volunteer firefighters were hospitalized with relatively minor injuries from the six-alarm fire on Hudson Terrace in Fort Lee, which ignited Saturday afternoon, continued through the night and collapsed portions of the five-story brick building. Authorities initially feared the worst when a resident was unaccounted for, Mayor Mark Sokolich said, but that tenant apparently is out of the country. The Red Cross had put up about a dozen families at local hotel…

SHARE

by Jerry DeMarco
News
NJ Uber Rider Accused Of Threatening Driver With Fake Gun For Oral Sex Indicted NJ Uber Rider Accused Of Threatening Driver With Fake Gun For Oral Sex Indicted
NJ Uber Rider Accused Of Threatening Driver With Fake Gun For Oral Sex Indicted A gun-wielding Uber rider from Fort Lee who threatened to kill a driver if she didn’t give him oral sex had taken off his shirt and was sitting in the front seat when police showed up, authorities said. The Uber driver had fooled Andrew Mendez, 30, into waiting while she ran into a Paterson grocery store to get something to drink, an indictment returned by a state grand jury says. Officers who seized Mendez also found an imitation handgun that the driver said he’d “racked” during their ride, it says. Mendez has remained in the Passaic County Jail ever since the incident on Feb. 16, 2020. …

SHARE

by Jerry DeMarco
News
Prosecutor: Leonia Phys Ed Teacher Had 'Inappropriate Sexual Relationship' With Student Prosecutor: Leonia Phys Ed Teacher Had 'Inappropriate Sexual Relationship' With Student
Prosecutor: Leonia Phys Ed Teacher Had 'Inappropriate Sexual Relationship' With Student UPDATE: A Leonia High School physical education teacher was arrested after authorities learned of an "inappropriate sexual relationship" with a student, Bergen County Prosecutor Mark Musella said Friday.  Samantha Krakower, who turned 24 on Wednesday, was charged with second-degree sexual assault by someone with “supervisory or disciplinary power” over a victim 16 to 17 years old, he said. Krakower, a former high school and college softball standout who lives in Palisades Park, also was charged with criminal sexual contact and child endangerment. She remained held in the county l…

SHARE

by Jerry DeMarco
News
Leonia High School Phys Ed Teacher Charged With Sexually Assaulting Underage Teen Leonia High School Phys Ed Teacher Charged With Sexually Assaulting Underage Teen
Leonia High School Phys Ed Teacher Charged With Sexually Assaulting Underage Teen UPDATE: A Leonia High School physical education teacher was arrested after authorities learned of an "inappropriate sexual relationship" with a student, Bergen County Prosecutor Mark Musella said Friday. Samantha Krakower, who turned 24 on Wednesday, was charged with second-degree sexual assault by someone with “supervisory or disciplinary power” over a victim 16 to 17 years old, he said. Krakower, a former high school and college softball standout who lives in Palisades Park, also was charged with criminal sexual contact and child endangerment. She remained held in the county lockup Frid…

SHARE

by Jerry DeMarco
News
'I Shot My Parents': Bogus Call Brings Police From Several Bergen Towns 'I Shot My Parents': Bogus Call Brings Police From Several Bergen Towns
'I Shot My Parents': Bogus Call Brings Police From Several Bergen Towns A caller had just told a Montvale police dispatcher that she'd just shot her parents. Law enforcement colleagues from Hillsdale, Park Ridge and Woodcliff Lake immediately mobilized to assist their Pascack Valley colleagues Saturday night. Officers went to the parents' house and didn't find anyone home. They checked out at least one other claim the caller made that was bogus, too. "It was called in from out of state," Police Chief Joseph Sanfillipo said. "An investigation is ongoing." Authorities don't consider "swatting" pranks amusing. Summoning police from surrounding towns, depl…

SHARE

by Jerry DeMarco
News
Units Damaged In Fort Lee Condo Fire Units Damaged In Fort Lee Condo Fire
Units Damaged In Fort Lee Condo Fire Firefighters doused a Thursday afternoon blaze that damaged units on two floors of a Fort Lee condominium. Flames blew through two first-floor windows after breaking out in a crawlspace in the five-story brick Central Court Condominiums on Central Road shortly before 2 p.m. Firefighters had the two-alarm blaze knocked down in about an hour and under control before 3:30 p.m. It was later ruled accidental. No injuries were reported. Firefighters from Edgewater, Englewood, Englewood Cliffs, Fairview, Leonia, Palisades Park and Ridgefield were among the mutual aid responders. Tony Greco took…

SHARE

by Jerry DeMarco
News
'I Just Shot My Father': Bogus Swatting Call Draws Mass Response To Palisades Park Apartment 'I Just Shot My Father': Bogus Swatting Call Draws Mass Response To Palisades Park Apartment
'I Just Shot My Father': Bogus Swatting Call Draws Mass Response To Palisades Park Apartment A throng of police and tactical units descended on a Palisades Park garden apartment complex Friday night in response to what turned out to be a bogus 911 call of a man with a bomb strapped to his chest. The swatting incident forced the evacuation of the West Central Boulevard complex off Grand Avenue after a 911 caller told a dispatcher around 9 p.m. that "I just shot my father," Detective Alex Monteleone said. Units were rushing to the site when the swatter called again, saying he'd shot his dad a second time, he said. The third time, he said he had a pipe bomb strapped to his chest that…

SHARE

by Jerry DeMarco
News
Route 46 Stop: PalPark Officer Finds $42,000 In SUV, $4,300 In NYC Driver's Hidden Pants Pocket Route 46 Stop: PalPark Officer Finds $42,000 In SUV, $4,300 In NYC Driver's Hidden Pants Pocket
Route 46 Stop: PalPark Officer Finds $42,000 In SUV, $4,300 In NYC Driver's Hidden Pants Pocket A Palisades Park police officer who stopped an SUV on Route 46 found pot scattered throughout the vehicle, $42,000 in cash in a plastic bag and $4,300 in a concealed pocket in the driver’s pants, authorities said. Officer Christian Sisco stopped the Hyundai Santa Fe with temporary Texas license plates for several violations on the eastbound highway near the George Washington Bridge shortly before 2:30 a.m. Friday, Detective Alex Monteleone said. After smelling pot in the vehicle, he summoned backups and got the driver’s consent for a search, Monteleone said. They found marijuana throughout…

SHARE

by Jerry DeMarco
News
Homeless Man Found Frozen To Death In Vacant Cliffside Park Building Identified Homeless Man Found Frozen To Death In Vacant Cliffside Park Building Identified
Homeless Man Found Frozen To Death In Vacant Cliffside Park Building Identified UPDATE: The family of a homeless Guatemalan immigrant found frozen to death in a vacant apartment in Cliffside Park won’t be able to bring his body home, friends say. A concerned friend who hadn’t seen him went to check the Palisade Avenue building near the Fairview border where Jorge Adalberto Roca had been staying with nearly a dozen other squatters, authorities said. Like him, Roca’s wife had suffered from severe alcoholism Roca’s wife, Virginia, died from alcoholism three months ago. Their children were placed with a caretaker in Fairview. That left Roca – an undocumented immigrant fro…

SHARE

by Jerry DeMarco
News
Authorities ID Woman Found Dead In Florida As Palisades Park Native, 65, Still Don't Know Cause Authorities ID Woman Found Dead In Florida As Palisades Park Native, 65, Still Don't Know Cause
Authorities ID Woman Found Dead In Florida As Palisades Park Native, 65, Still Don't Know Cause Two months after the barefoot body of a Palisades Park native was found in a rural area of Florida, authorities have finally identified her – but they still don’t know how she died. Relatives from North Jersey who's seen social media posts helped identify Maryann Zoon, 65, who’d apparently lived alone in Fort Pierce near a stretch of road with no surrounding houses where a work crew found her decomposing remains in November. She hadn't been reported missing, authorities said. Although they don’t suspect any wrongdoing, detectives with the St. Lucie County Sheriff's Office were trying to pi…

SHARE

by Jerry DeMarco
News
Homeless Man Found Frozen To Death In Palisades Park Garage, Companion Hospitalized Homeless Man Found Frozen To Death In Palisades Park Garage, Companion Hospitalized
Homeless Man Found Frozen To Death In Palisades Park Garage, Companion Hospitalized A 35-year-old homeless man was found frozen to death and his companion barely alive Friday morning in a Palisades Park municipal parking garage, authorities said. The male companion was in critical condition in the Intensive Care Unit at Hackensack University Medical Center, they said. A DPW crew found the pair sleeping on a mattress and called police at 9:40 a.m., said Capt. Anthony Espino, the officer in charge of the department. The Bergen County Medical Examiner found no signs of foul play and said the cause of death was hypothermia. Temperatures dropped into the mid-teens overnight w…

SHARE

by Jerry DeMarco