Smash-And-Grab Car Burglaries Raise Concerns Of Felony Lane Gang

HOWELL, NJ — Authorities in several towns are warning residents to lock their vehicles and to not leave valuables in plain sight following vehicle burlgaries that appear to be associated with the Felony Lane Gang, police in Howell said Wednesday.

The Howell burglaries happened Saturday, Detective Sgt. Christian Antunez said, and they appear to be part of a wider spate of similar burglaries that have been reported in nearby Wall and Freehold Township, as well as in Hamilton, Linwood and Egg Harbor Township.

Antunez said two of the burglaries in Howell happened at the Little League South/Deerwood Park complex on Lakewood Allenwood Road, and the third happened at Gold’s Gym, 4481 Route 9 north. All three, which happened between 2 p.m. and 4 p.m. involved a window being smashed and a purse or handbag left visible in the vehicle being stolen, he said.

The suspect vehicle, black Cadillac Escalade seen at Gold’s Gym in that timeframe appears to be the same vehicle used in the Freehold Township burglaries, Antunez said. Freehold Township authorities said several cars were broken into at MJ Tighe Park on Saturday, again with side windows smashes and pocketbooks and walls stolen.

Freehold Township police are asking anyone with information to contact them at 732-462-7908.

Details on the Wall Township incidents were not immediately available.

The Felony Lane Gang is the name given by the FBI to a group of organized burglary and identity theft rings operating in multiple jurisdictions throughout the United States. The group originated in South Florida but the FBI said "these decentralized crews often operate independently, with a loose hierarchy." The group uses rental vehicles with heavily-tinted windows to conduct surveillance in parking lots and steal identification documents, credit cards, and checkbooks from unattended vehicles. The majority of these burglaries occur at gyms, fitness centers, daycare facilities, and recreation areas where women would be more likely to leave their purses in their vehicles, the FBI said. The stolen checks and IDs are then used to withdraw large sums of money at multiple banks before the victims have the opportunity to close their accounts.

The victims are almost always female, the FBI said, and the Felony Lane Gang has been known to recruit women, often prostitutes and drug users, from outside the group to impersonate the victims. These women are known to successfully use disguises, such as wigs. The subjects will strategically choose the farthest window from the teller, in bank drive-thru lanes, to impersonate the customer while using a stolen ID. This drive-through lane is commonly known as the "felony lane," thus coining the name of this criminal enterprise.

In February, an Arizona woman who donned several different wigs was arrested in Monmouth County after a string of smash-and-grab vehicle burglaries in Ocean and Monmouth counties. Questions about the Felony Lane Gang were raised at the time but it's unclear whether the woman was connected to that criminal enterprise.

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