Home Burglaries, Attempted Burglary Reported In Montclair

MONTCLAIR, NJ — Two home burglaries and an attempted home burglary were reported in Montclair last week, authorities announced Tuesday.

The Montclair Police Department released the following details about each incident.

Sept. 30 (Christopher Street) – A resident reported that an unknown man attempted to enter his residence during the morning. Surveillance footage shows the suspect first seen at 5:15 a.m. walking up to a 2023 BMW X5 parked in the rear driveway. The suspect walked up to both sides of the vehicle. Unable to enter the car, the suspect then walks to the rear door and attempts to open the door using the door handle. The suspect then tries pushing up the window closest to the rear door, above the storm door. All of which were unsuccessful, and the suspect exits up their driveway. The suspect appears to be an adult male with a medium build of average stature. It appears the suspect is wearing gloves, along with black shoes, gray sweatpants and a gray hooded sweatshirt.

Oct. 1 (Capron Lance) – A resident reported that at approximately 3:46 a.m., his home was burglarized. The resident said that when he walked downstairs into his kitchen area, he saw the back door and garage door ajar. The resident then discovered that his white 2023 Mercedes Benz GLE was missing from the driveway. The keys to this vehicle were left on the kitchen counter, and one of the keys belonging to the Mercedes was missing. The resident’s wife’s purse was stolen as well. The home's surveillance system captured the suspect vehicle entering the area at 3:45 a.m. The suspect vehicle, a white SUV, parked in front of the victim’s driveway. Two suspects then exited the vehicle. At 3:56 a.m., surveillance footage shows the victim’s vehicle driving south on Capron Lane. Located on the ground beside the home was a black crowbar, as well as a flathead screwdriver. It appears that the suspects entered the residence through a garage window, before entering the main home through the garage door. After stealing the keys and wallet, the suspects exited the home through the back door. The victim’s vehicle was recovered later that day in Irvington.

Oct. 3 (Undercliff Road) – At approximately 3:10 a.m., a resident reported a burglary in progress to his residence. He further reported that two men were attempting to enter his kitchen. The first responding officer observed a white BMW sedan parked in front of the residence. Upon noticing the patrol vehicle, the BMW fled north on Undercliff Road at a high rate of speed. Additional responding units located the fleeing BMW on east Union Street and attempted to stop it. The suspect vehicle continued fleeing at a high rate of speed and was last seen east on Bloomfield Avenue entering Bloomfield Township. The resident reported that he received an alert from his camera system about motion by the sliding glass door on the north side of his house. When he viewed the camera, he saw three people attempting to open the side door of his house. At one point, a suspect opened an unlocked sliding glass door leading to a mud room, but he seemed to be deterred from a secondary door, which was locked. The three suspects were last seen on video heading towards the rear of the property at 3:11 a.m. The suspects were described as three males, one wearing a black sweatshirt, black sweatpants, black ski mask, green gloves and black/green Jordan sneakers. He was also holding a yellow crowbar. The second was wearing a black sweatshirt, black jeans with zippers on the thighs, black and gray gloves and black Jordan sneakers. The third wore a black ski mask, black zip up sweatshirt, gray gloves and white/black Nike sneakers.

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