Rumson police have charged a Newark man with stealing three luxury cars from town in a single night last September, Chief Richard Tobias tells redbankgreen.
Jimmy Nunez, 31, was identified earlier this week by the Essex County Prosecutor’s office as one of 11 members of an alleged car-stealing ring, according to various news reports.
Tobias said Nunez was charged in the borough Thursday with three counts of auto theft, two counts of burglary, and one count of theft of movable property. Municipal Judge Richard Thompson set Nunez’s bail at $75,000 with no option to post just ten percent. Nunez was in Essex County Jail Thursday, Tobias said.
Other complaints are pending against Nunez by Rumson, Tobias said.
Detective Christopher Isherwood has been working with an Essex County Prosecutors Office Task Force set up to investigate an auto theft network since October of 2011, Tobias said.
Here’s what NorthJersey.com wrote about the alleged auto-theft ring earlier this week:
The arrests stem from Operation High-End, a long-term investigation conducted by the Essex County Prosecutor’s Office, the Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office, the Newark Police Department and the New Jersey State Police, involving high-end autos that were stolen from affluent communities from Bergen to Ocean Counties.In addition to the above agencies, the Jersey City and Millburn Police Departments provided assistance.
The investigation began when the Newark Police Department began recovering a number of luxury automobiles that had been stolen from various communities in New Jersey. The law enforcement agencies represented here today formed a task force.
Through hundreds of hours of surveillance, detectives determined that members of this organization would travel to affluent communities throughout northern New Jersey and would search for luxury automobiles. The thefts would occur during the early morning hours and most often, the vehicle owners had left the keys in the car. Most of the cars were then resold for a fraction of their value. Other vehicles were dismantled for parts. Several of the stolen vehicles were recovered during the course of the investigation and have been returned to their owners.
