Police announce arrest in vehicle burglaries, thefts
By ERIN ROLL
roll@montclairlocal.news
Police have made an arrest in several burglaries that have taken place around Montclair’s northern end over the last week.
Danny Gonzalez, 20, of Newark, was arrested on July 14 and charged with 13 counts of burglary and 15 counts of theft, according to a statement released by the Montclair Police Department on Monday. He was also processed on a theft of a motor vehicle charge from an incident on Lorraine Avenue in 2016.
Gonzalez is alleged to have been responsible for 22 vehicle burglaries and the theft of two motor vehicles. The incidents in question were reported in the area of Cooper Avenue, Gordonhurst Avenue, Marion Road and Beverly Road.
The arrest took place when officers received a report of a man looking into parked vehicles on Wildwood Avenue. Officers working a construction detail responded to the scene after being given a description of the man.
According to the police statement, Gonzalez was found to have been in possession of burglary tools and items that had been taken from vehicles in recent thefts.
Montclair has experienced a large number of burglaries to auto over the last three weeks, with several of them being concentrated around Valley Road and its neighboring side streets.
According to the July 11 police blotter, there were a total of 27 burglaries from autos around Montclair between July 5 and July 10. There were also two reports of stolen cars: a 2001 Honda Civic taken from Marquette Road on July 7 and a black Subaru CrossTrek taken from Cooper Avenue on July 10.
On July 10, there were nine reported burglaries to autos on Cooper Avenue, as well as one report of a burglary to auto on Lackawanna Plaza.
On July 7, there were 12 reports of burglaries to autos. The affected streets included Valley Road, Overlook Road, Marion Road, Glenwood Road and Marquette Road.
In nearly all of the cases, the vehicles were reported to have been left unlocked.
The police stated that there have been a total of eight recent arrests related to burglaries from autos.
Following the burglaries, the police released an alert to residents urging them to keep their vehicles locked while unattended, and not to store valuable items inside their vehicles.