Township police converged the Rio Vista development in response to multiple 911 calls of vehicles being broken into shortly before 7 a.m. Sunday, Dec. 18, Capt. Guido Bussinelli said.
Moments later, Officer Darren Iurato tried to stop a recently-stolen Honda CRV after it emerged from the complex and headed first toward Campgaw Road and then Darlington Avenue, the captain said.
A pursuit ensued down Route 17, with Mahwah police alerting their colleagues further south along with New Jersey State Police, he said.
The Honda driver tried to exit at Century Road in Paramus but lost control of the vehicle and crashed, Bussinelli said.
Four occupants altogether hopped out and ran off, he said.
Paramus, Upper Saddle River and Allendale police and Bergen County sheriff’s officers joined in the chase, which ended with three teens quickly taken into custody, the captain said.
A fourth was in the wind.
One of the other three was being monitored with an ankle bracelet after being detained elsewhere, Bussinelli said.
He and another were sent to the Bergen County Juvenile Detention Center in Teterboro to await hearings in the Family Part of Superior Court in Hackensack. The other was released to a guardian.
Police signed delinquency complaints for burglary and receiving stolen property, among other offenses, against the teens, Bussinelli said.
Participating Mahwah police included Iurato and fellow Officers Joseph Alvarez, Matthew Buonocore, Darren Iurato, Dennis Toomey, Thomas Panelas and Dan Stewart, the captain said.
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