Burglar Caught After Ramming Police Cars, Prosecutor Says

A 22-year-old Hackensack man suspected in a string of burglaries across North Jersey was arrested Thursday after he rammed a BMW into three police vehicles as a team of investigators tried to pull him over in Nutley, authorities said.

Bergen County Prosecutor John L. Molinelli said the man, Hakeem A. Chance, was a “person of interest” in home break-ins throughout Bergen, Morris, Somerset, Union and Middlesex counties. In response to the crime spree, a task force including more than a dozen police agencies was formed.

Investigators were following Chance Thursday when he stopped at a Bergen County hotel before picking up a man in Englewood, Molinelli said. The pair then drove to a residential area in Nutley where, within an hour, a break-in was reported near the spot authorities said Chance had parked.

Task force detectives saw Chance and an accomplice drive past them shortly after the Nutley burglary, Molinelli said. When officers tried to stop the pair, Chance allegedly rammed the police vehicles and fled into Little Falls where he was quickly captured.

Molinelli said the other man escaped and remains at large.

Acting on a search warrant, detectives found marijuana and cocaine in Chance’s home along with burglary tools, ski masks and gloves in his car, according to the prosecutor.

Chance faces charges including burglary, aggravated assault on a police officer and possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose. He was ordered held on $500,000 bail, with no ten percent.

The accused burglar is no stranger to local law enforcement. Teaneck police, who participated in the task force, in connection with two burglaries in town. He was released on bail, but the status of that case was not immediately clear.