Newark Teen Arrested In Aberdeen Part Of Car Theft Ring, Police Say

ABERDEEN, NJ — Car thefts have reached record-high levels in Monmouth County this August and September, especially in Holmdel, where in two separate incidents over Labor Day weekend luxury SUVs fled from Holmdel Police, both times driving faster than 90 MPH on local roads.

In one of those pursuits, a BMW SUV rammed into a Holmdel police cruiser. The officer had to be hospitalized at Bayshore Medical Center.

Aberdeen Township is similarly not immune from car thefts:

On Aug. 1, police say an Aberdeen resident left his car unlocked in the Stop & Shop plaza parking lot, specifically in front of Round Pie Pizza Company.

A 15-year-old Newark teen boy entered the car, but the car's owner returned and scared the teen away. The teen fled in a car, but police were able to locate him in Newark, where he was taken into police custody by Aberdeen Police Detective Heather Dillon.

The Newark teen is involved in car thefts from around the area, said Aberdeen Police. He was charged with motor vehicle theft.

Monmouth County has always had car thefts, but this year’s spike has been massive: High-end car thefts have increased 110 percent in 2022, Monmouth County Sheriff Golden said in May.

The ringleaders hire teens and young people from poor urban areas to drive into wealthy suburban towns and steal the cars. They prefer teens under 18 to steal the cars as they cannot be charged as adults, according to Assemblyman Gerry Scharfenberger (R-Middletown), one of many who is calling for New Jersey to bring back bail reform.

The cars are then driven to urban centers such as Newark and Paterson. They use certain spots to “cool off” the stolen vehicles, parking them at a hotel lot in Elizabeth or a long-term parking lot at Newark airport, for example, to makes sure the cars are not equipped with tracking devices, as many cars are these days.

If police or the car's owners do not locate the stolen car, it is then loaded onto container ships at the port of Newark and shipped overseas to Africa or South America, where they are re-sold. Or the stolen cars are fenced domestically here in the United States.

A Middletown resident had his Range Rovers stolen twice out of his driveway this spring.

Prior: Bring Back Bail For Car Thieves, Say Monmouth County Republican Lawmakers (May 2022)