POLICE CRUISER CARJACKED ON TURNPIKE

1/26/00

NEW JERSEY -The same day a carjacker stole an unmarked state 
police cruiser, the New Jersey Turnpike commissioners voted to spend
$103,000 to install shields between the front and back seats of marked 
state police vehicles.

The events leading to the carjacking began around 5 a.m. when a man
walked up to a Turnpike gas station with an anti-freeze container, 
claiming to have run out of gas. The attendants filled the container 
full of gas and offered to give the man a ride to his vehicle in a 
service station van.

The man was unable to direct the attendants to his vehicle, so the
attendants turned the van around and returned to the station. The 
suspect then pulled out a handgun and demanded cash. He stole an
undetermined amount of money and fled in the service van.

He exited the service station on an entrance ramp, where he smashed
into a tractor-trailer. He then jumped from the disabled van and fled
on foot.

Troopers arrived on the scene soon after the wreck and began searching
for the suspect.

At about 8:30 a.m., New Jersey State Police Sgt. Timothy Vanak was driving 
to work in his unmarked cruiser when he spotted a vehicle stranded on the 
side of the turnpike. Unbeknownst to the trooper, the motorist was the 
suspect and the vehicle was stolen.

The trooper allowed the man to warm up in the backseat of his cruiser. At 
the same time, another trooper arrived on the scene, so Vanak walked over 
to the marked patrol car.

The suspect climbed from the back into the drivers seat and drove away. 
Vanak ran to his cruiser and jumped into the car through a back door. He 
struggled with the suspect until the man put a handgun to his face. Vanak 
jumped from the car and the suspect sped away.

Icy road conditions prevented a pursuit of the suspect.

The man only made it six miles north from where he stole it and then slid 
into a ditch. When a couple in a minivan stopped to help, he stole their 
vehicle at gunpoint.

The man, described as a thin, black male in his twenties or thirties, 
remained at large Tuesday night.

Vanak received medical treatment for an injured shoulder and wrist at
a local hospital and was released.


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