Late-night crime sprees rarely unfold quite like this one did in Washington Township, New Jersey. What started as a call about suspicious activity in a quiet residential neighborhood turned into a high-speed chase, a near-deadly highway collision, an unmanned runaway Jeep, and four masked suspects disappearing into the Philadelphia night. If that sounds like a lot, that is because it genuinely was a lot.
Washington Township Police are actively searching for the four individuals believed to be behind a string of vehicle burglaries and car thefts that ripped through the Bateman Farms development overnight. Detectives say the group hit multiple cars in the neighborhood, targeting unlocked vehicles and walking away with credit cards, cash, and wallets before residents even had a chance to realize anything was wrong.
The incident unfolded just after 11 p.m., when officers responded to a report of a suspicious vehicle and multiple people attempting to get into parked cars in the development. What followed was anything but a routine patrol stop. Within minutes, police were in pursuit of two stolen vehicles, the suspects had nearly caused a catastrophic crash on a main road, and a driverless Jeep was barreling down a residential street on its own…