By Brenda Flanagan
Correspondent
From Benzes to Beemers, investigators with Operation Jacked say they recovered 163 stolen luxury vehicles, worth $8 million back in February — knocked down the organized carjacking syndicate that allegedly stole these high end vehicles and shipped them in containers to West Africa.
“And it takes the car thieves off the streets, and the carjackers off the streets,” said New Jersey Acting Attorney General John Hoffman.
Hoffman says the bust helped produce dramatic results.
“It did have a tremendous impact — 40 percent decrease in car thefts and carjackings in those northern counties,” he said. “We’ve never seen that kind of a drop before.”
Hoffman says New Jersey logged 267 carjackings this year to date — that’s down 40 percent compared to 459 last year, 414 in 2012 and 428 the year before. That’s in the four northern counties that comprise New Jersey’s carjacking hotspots.
He says the carjacking ring provided a marketplace that no longer exists since the alleged ringleaders, car shippers and fences got arrested — 26 indicted yesterday.
“And it’s a pretty nasty group of people, this was. Fifteen to 20 percent of these were violent carjackings, a couple of which I remember, in particular, a woman being gratuitously pistol-whipped as she was dragged out of her car,” Hoffman said.
Carjackers want to get you off guard. For example, on the highway they’ll bump your vehicle from behind, then when you stop and get out to look for damage, that’s when they jump into your car and take off — along with the key fob that makes your car operate.
“They’ve gotta get that key and they’ve gotta get that key fob, and so for that reason we see a lot more violent carjackings. We all remember what happened in the Short Hills Mall,” Hoffman said.
That brutal carjacking cost Dustin Friedland his life a year ago. Carjackers allegedly targeted his Range Rover while Friedland and his wife did their holiday shopping. And shoppers today haven’t forgotten that.
“I think the fellow that was killed at the Short Hills Mall, brought a lot of attention to it. It could happen anywhere,” said one shopper.
“Is it a ring of people carjacking — like these Lexus, these Mercedes, elaborate cars — and there’s a lot of money being spent up here and a lot of expensive cars,” said Quakerbridge Mall shopper Carter Jenkins.
The best way to handle this new breed of violent carjacker, according to Hoffman: “Don’t fight. Don’t fight. Unfortunately.”
He says give them the car, let them leave and then call the authorities.