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It began when a Mountain View merchant alerted officers to a man carrying a crowbar in the parking lot of his business.
Questioned by police, the man said he’d driven there from the Poconos to help a friend with his disabled vehicle, Detective Capt. Dan Daly said.
The vehicle, parked nearby, clearly had been damaged in a crash, Daly said.
The man said he couldn’t find his friend – “Tony” -- who he said was supposed to be walking his dog in the area.
His driver’s license was suspended, Daly said, so police told him the registered owner would have to pick up his car.
A patrol supervisor who also responded came upon a second man sitting in a parked vehicle with Pennsylvania license plates nearby.
He, too, said he was there to help “Tony” with his broken-down car but couldn’t find him.
Officers watched from a distance as the suspended driver got into a vehicle and left, Daly said. They stopped him and wrote several summonses, he said.
The second man drove off and headed to Route 23, followed by an officer in an unmarked vehicle, the captain said.
Moments later, the officer saw a dog in the car that wasn’t there earlier, Daly said.
The officer stopped the vehicle and found 31-year-old Anthony Gracia of Wayne, PA, hiding on the floor of the rear seat with drug paraphernalia next to him, he said.
Gracia was removed from the vehicle, searched and found to have 1,280 heroin folds on him, Daly said.
Police charged him with drug-related offenses and sent him to the Passaic County Jail to await a first appearance in Central Judicial Processing Court in Paterson.
The other men were released.
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