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The nightmare unfolded around 4:30 a.m. when burglars smashed through the glass front door of their Berdan Avenue home, he said.
"We were asleep upstairs. We heard two smashes and glass shattering. I thought the skylight in the bathroom exploded or a tree fell on the house," the homeowner recalled.
Then he heard movement.
"I ran downstairs, started yelling, ‘What’s going on?!’ I saw someone run out the door."
As he grabbed his phone to call 911, his wife realized her purse was missing. Then he heard his truck start.
"I dropped the phone and ran outside after it," he said. "They backed up, put it in drive, and tried to run me over."
The stolen BMW X5M and Jeep Trackhawk vanished down the street.
What seemed like a fast, chaotic break-in was actually well-planned, the homeowner later learned.
Surveillance footage showed the burglars circling the block for 30 minutes, peering through windows and checking for a way in. When they smashed the front door with a rock, they went straight for the car keys, grabbed them, and sped off (you can watch the getaway by clicking here).
"They were all in. Once they made that decision, they weren’t leaving empty-handed," he said.
A license plate reader in Newark picked up the stolen vehicles, and the homeowner used GPS tracking to follow his wife’s car—until the thieves ripped out the tracker 30 minutes later, he said.
"Who knows where they are now?"
Police believe the burglars were cruising town looking for high-end vehicles before striking.
For the homeowner, it was a brutal wake-up call—but not his family’s first brush with life-changing crime.
"Last year, we were headed to Clemson to visit our son for Parents Weekend, when a drunk driver crossed over the median," he said. "We hit him. He died on the scene… we escaped with non-life-threatening injuries."
The same make and model of the car that saved their lives in that crash was stolen in this break-in.
"It’s being violated in every way possible. It’s an awful feeling."
But what shakes him most is that he doesn’t believe the criminals will face consequences.
"They have no regard for life. They’re wild animals looking for their next score," he said. "And there are no consequences. They’ll be out in 30 days doing this again."
Now, he has a warning for other homeowners:
"If someone wants what you have, they’re going to take it. Locks keep honest people honest, but once they’re inside, they’re leaving with what they came for."
Police have not yet released descriptions of the suspects or the stolen vehicles. Anyone with information is asked to contact Fair Lawn Police.
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