Stolen Vehicle Crashes, Burns As Teen Driver From Seaside Heights Flees: Prosecutor

TOMS RIVER, NJ — An Ocean County teenager has been arrested after crashing a stolen car as the teen fled from police in Jackson, authorities announced Wednesday.

The teen, a 17-year-old from Seaside Heights, was not identified by the prosecutor's office due to being a juvenile.

Two vehicles were reported stolen from Imperial Place in Jackson Township about 10:45 p.m. on Aug. 3, Prosecutor Bradley D. Billhimer and Jackson Township Police Chief Matthew Kunz said in a joint news release.

Jackson police saw the vehicles about 11 p.m. traveling northwest on Leesville Road at the intersection of Freehold Road and tried to pull them over, but the drivers fled, Billhimer said. A few seconds later one of the stolen vehicles crashed into a tree as the Seaside Heights teen lost control.

The vehicle then burst into flames, authorities said.

The teen tried to run away from the crash but was apprehended and is being held at the Ocean County Juvenile Detention Center, authorities said, and faces charges of theft of moveable property, eluding, obstruction, and resisting arrest by means of flight.

The Jackson Township Police Department, the Ocean County Prosecutor’s Office Vehicular Homicide Unit, and the Ocean County Sheriff’s Office Crime Scene Investigation Unit collaborated on the investigation.