Cresskill Police: Home Invasion Suspects Carried Snow Shovels As A Cover
CRESSKILL, N.J. (CBSNewYork) - Another round of snow is headed for the region, but the snowy winter has not put home invasions on ice.
As CBS 2's John Slattery reported from Cresskill in Bergen County, N.J., thieves are apparently using snow shovels as a cover to break in to homes.
Iru Chen, 27, was home when suspected thieves kicked in her front door.
"Very scared," Chen, 27, told Slattery. "I'm OK now."
The suspects hit the home Chen shares with her aunt and her grandmother and another home a half a mile away during Monday morning's snowstorm, police said.
Police said two white men wearing ski masks and carrying snow shovels went door to door, hoping to find nobody at home.
"It appears that they were using the ruse of looking for work shoveling driveways," Cresskill Police Det. John Birnie told Slattery.
At one home, the suspects dropped a pillowcase containing jewelry when they realized a teenage girl was home, Slattery reported. The suspects were still able to make off with a loaded gun, police said.
Chen said her house was visited by the thieves when she didn't answer the doorbell.
"I heard a loud sound from the upstairs. My dog was barking so I went upstairs and the door was wide open," said Chen. "The top of the moulding of the door was wide open, like kicked off. And it was wide open."
She saw no one, but could hear a car driving away. Detectives have a description of the van they're looking for.
"A white van, older model, dirty looking van was seen in the vicinity," Birnie told Slattery.
Police recovered one of the snow shovels, which they are processing for possible prints.
Police said that in addition to those two home invasions, another front door was forced open in the nearby town of Haworth.
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