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BEWARE: 'Amazon' Phone Scammer Cons Glen Rock Victim Out Of $10,000 BEWARE: 'Amazon' Phone Scammer Cons Glen Rock Victim Out Of $10,000
Beware: 'Amazon' Phone Scammer Cons Glen Rock Victim Out Of $10,000 A Glen Rock resident lost more than $10,000 in an Amazon telephone scam, authorities said. The victim had just made an Amazon purchase when a text arrived from a purported “customer service representative” claiming there’d been a $1,490.97 purchase that the resident didn’t make, Police Chief Dean Ackermann said. The scammer then gave the victim a number to call to dispute the charge, he said. The victim called and was directed to buy gift cards “to fix the security breach,” the chief said. “Over the next five hours the victim purchased over $ 10,000 in gift cards from NIKE, TARGET and E-B…

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by Jerry DeMarco
News
Runaway SUV In Drive Instead Of Park Plows Through Front Window Of Rita's Ice In Glen Rock Runaway SUV In Drive Instead Of Park Plows Through Front Window Of Rita's Ice In Glen Rock
Runaway SUV In Drive Instead Of Park Plows Through Front Window Of Rita's Ice In Glen Rock A Rita's ice shop in Glen Rock was open for business when an SUV plowed through the front window. Fortunately no one was hurt, police said. The BMW came crashing through the Rita's Italian Ice and Frozen Custard on Maple Avenue near the Fair Lawn border just off Route 208 shortly before 7 p.m. The Glen Rock driver, 43, who was operating with an Australian driver's license, told responding officers that he failed to realize that his vehicle was still in drive when he parked, Police Chief Dean Ackermann said. The SUV also damaged a side door and some chairs and tables inside, but that was i…

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by Jerry DeMarco
News
UPDATE: Fair Lawn Boy Found Nearly 600 Miles From Home UPDATE: Fair Lawn Boy Found Nearly 600 Miles From Home
Update: Fair Lawn Boy Found Nearly 600 Miles From Home A missing 16-year-old Fair Lawn boy was found safe and sound on Friday -- in Ohio, authorities confirmed. The news came a short time after a 16-year-old Glen Rock boy who also was reported missing on Thursday was found in Mahwah. Haadi Abdul-Ghaffar left his Fair Lawn home shortly before 8 a.m. Thursday, police said. Police suspected he might have been headed either to New York's Penn Station of Pennsylvania. He was reported found late Friday morning, Fair Lawn Police Sgt. Brian Metzler said. The department thanked police in Columbus and Dayton, Ohio for their assistance. The news out o…

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by Jerry DeMarco
News
UPDATE: Current From Lightning Strike Damages Glen Rock Home UPDATE: Current From Lightning Strike Damages Glen Rock Home
Update: Current From Lightning Strike Damages Glen Rock Home A kitchen socket was blown off the wall, a surveillance camera was knocked from the back of the home and a window was blown out when lightning struck a backyard tree in Glen Rock during Wednesday night's storm, authorities said.  "The vacationing homeowner is extremely lucky, as is the family dog," Police Chief Dean Ackermann said. Lightning struck a tree in the backyard of the Prospect Avenue home, sending a current through an overhead electrical wire for decorative yard lights and into the house, the chief said. It blew a surveillance camera off the back of the home, shattered a kit…

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by Jerry DeMarco
News
SCAM ALERT: ‘Gypsy’ Thieves Are Back, Con Elderly Glen Rock Couple Out Of $18,000 SCAM ALERT: ‘Gypsy’ Thieves Are Back, Con Elderly Glen Rock Couple Out Of $18,000
Scam ALERT: ‘Gypsy’ Thieves Are Back, Con Elderly Glen Rock Couple Out Of $18,000 SEEN IT? “Gypsy” scammers are out again, police warn, pointing to an elderly Glen Rock couple who came thisclose to losing $18,000. The con artists, also called “travelers,” move around the East Coast using scams and diversions to get into people’s pocketbooks. This time, a grifting group coincidentally came to the door of a couple who’d called a legitimate roofing company for help, Glen Rock Police Chief Dean Ackermann said. When the couple asked whether they were their contractors, they said they were. They then “proceeded to cover the entire roof with some sort of tar or rubberized as…

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by Jerry DeMarco
News
GLEN ROCKED: Town Puzzled By Mysterious ‘Explosions’ GLEN ROCKED: Town Puzzled By Mysterious ‘Explosions’
Glen Rocked: Town Puzzled By Mysterious ‘Explosions’ They sounded like explosions and even knocked items off shelves, yet no one could pinpoint the source of a series of Memorial Day weekend booms that were heard – and felt – in a Glen Rock neighborhood. An officer responding to a report of “several loud bangs” that shook homes Saturday on Romary Court heard a series of explosions, Police Chief Dean Ackermann said. “However, they appeared to be coming from a distance away,” he said. Backup officers, firefighters and PSE&G crews converged on the neighborhood off Harristown Road. Surrounding towns were also notified. The utility workers “…

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by Jerry DeMarco
News
Alert Resident, Neighboring PDs Help Glen Rock Police Nab Newark Gang Of 5 Alert Resident, Neighboring PDs Help Glen Rock Police Nab Newark Gang Of 5
Alert Resident, Neighboring PDs Help Glen Rock Police Nab Newark Gang Of 5 Glen Rock police captured a car burglary crew from Newark with help from an alert resident and their colleagues from Fair Lawn and Ridgewood, authorities said. The resident called shortly before 5 a.m. Friday after spotting the thieves on Woodvale Road, Police Chief Dean Ackermann said. Sgt. Bryan Scott and Officers Annamarie Mattina and Nick Onove swooped in, joined by out-of-town officers, and took all five into custody, the chief said. They found items stolen from unlocked vehicles on Woodvale Road and Fieldmere Road in the car and on the thieves, Ackermann said. “Also recovered in th…

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by Jerry DeMarco
News
HEROES: Glen Rock Police Rescue Suicidal Man Who Threatened To Jump In Front Of Train HEROES: Glen Rock Police Rescue Suicidal Man Who Threatened To Jump In Front Of Train
Heroes: Glen Rock Police Rescue Suicidal Man Who Threatened To Jump In Front Of Train A crying Hoboken man told Glen Rock police who found him pacing back and forth at the local train station that he wanted to end it all, authorities said. Responding to a call from a concerned citizen, Officers John Tarantino and James McGill, along with Detective T.J. Graziani, found the troubled 44-year-old man at the Bergen Line Train Station near Harding Plaza, Police Chief Dean Ackermann said. He told Tarantino that he was about to jump in front of a train but spotted several children nearby and "did not want to commit suicide in front of them,” the chief said. After about 20 minutes, …

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by Jerry DeMarco
News
‘Community Vehicle’ Owned By No One Seized By Glen Rock PD, Driver Busted With Stolen ID ‘Community Vehicle’ Owned By No One Seized By Glen Rock PD, Driver Busted With Stolen ID
‘Community Vehicle’ Owned By No One Seized By Glen Rock PD, Driver Busted With Stolen ID Not only did a Paterson driver give Glen Rock police who pulled him over a license created with a stolen ID, authorities said. And not only was the SUV he was driving unregistered and uninsured.  The black 2005 Honda CRV also carried license plates taken from another car and was considered a "community vehicle," they said. Several people from the same neighborhood used the SUV and never bothered to register or insure it, Police Chief Dean Ackermann explained. Felix Montero-Terrero, 44, happened to be behind the wheel when borough Police Officer Jim Donnelly stopped the CRV on Lincoln …

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by Jerry DeMarco
Police & Fire
Glen Rock Burglaries Raise Question: How Secure Is Your Home? Glen Rock Burglaries Raise Question: How Secure Is Your Home?
Glen Rock Burglaries Raise Question: How Secure Is Your Home? WORTH CONSIDERING: Glen Rock police are joining other local law enforcement agencies in reminding residents to keep their homes as secure as they can amid a series of recent burglaries in northwest Bergen County. One of the most recent occurred around 8 p.m. Monday on Berry Place, where someone forced their way in through a rear door and fled with cash and jewelry, Police Chief Dean Ackermann said. An unlocked rear door made it wasy for another burglar or burgars in the 500 block of Maple Avenue near Central School sometime during the afternoon last week, the chief said. “Second-floor bed…

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by Jerry DeMarco
News
Police: Bergen Wingman Who Thought He Bought Plane Scammed Out Of $10,000 Police: Bergen Wingman Who Thought He Bought Plane Scammed Out Of $10,000
Police: Bergen Wingman Who Thought He Bought Plane Scammed Out Of $10,000 A Bergen County man who thought he’d put a down payment on a Cessna got taken for $10,000 by a scam artist who told him the aircraft had crashed, authorities said. The Glen Rock victim told borough police he thought he had an agreement to purchase a 2004 Cessna 182T for $200,000 through a website called planecheck.com, Police Chief Dean Ackermann said. As part of the deal, he told police, he sent the purported seller a $10,000 non-refundable deposit. The “seller” was to have flown the aircraft from Georgia and to Greenwood Lake Airport in West Milford for delivery, Ackermann said. Wh…

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by Jerry DeMarco
News
Train Kept Rollin' (UPDATE): Driver Of Car Struck At Glen Rock RR Crossing Gets Summons Train Kept Rollin' (UPDATE): Driver Of Car Struck At Glen Rock RR Crossing Gets Summons
Train Kept Rollin' (Update): Driver Of Car Struck At Glen Rock RR Crossing Gets Summons A Glen Rock driver whose car was clipped by a commuter train will have to explain what happened to a judge, authorities said.  The 59-year-old driver wasn't injured after the last car of the Hoboken-bound Bergen Line NJ Transit train struck the front of his eastbound 2015 Honda Civic, ripping off its bumper, at the Rock Road crossing shortly after 7 a.m. Nov. 24. The train kept rolling. "The engineer was not immediately aware of the collision, as the head end of the train had already cleared the crossing," Police Chief Dean Ackermann said. Police gave the driver a summons f…

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by Jerry DeMarco