Rockland pair arrested by Ho-Ho-Kus police admit to break-ins

Cliffview Pilot: Two men arrested by Ho-Ho-Kus police who interrupted a break-in earlier this week have admitted to several burglaries in Rockland County, where both live.

Alan DeStephano Jr. and Jeremy Olano, both 26, of Sloatsburg, were grabbed just off Franklin Turnpike within minutes of a break-in Monday.

They immediately became suspects in several area break-ins.

Ho-Ho-Kus Police Chief John Wanamaker told CLIFFVIEW PILOT that the pair confessed to burglaries in Rockland County. Detectives in several Bergen towns — among them: Hillsdale, Saddle River, Waldwick and Washington Township — are eyeing the pair, as well.

Olano last year was arrested in the holdup of a deli in Sloatsburg that forced the lockdown of a nearby elementary school, the site Sloatsburg Village reported.

DeStephano was charged in Ho-Ho-Kus on Monday with burglary, as well as possession of stolen property, burglary tools and drug paraphernalia.

Olano was charged with burglary and possession of drug paraphernalia.

They were being held on $15,000 bail each in the Bergen County Jail.

A Ho-Ho-Kus police sergeant was on patrol when he spotted a suspicious-looking vehicle with New York license plates on Edgewood Drive, Wanamaker told CLIFFVIEW PILOT on Tuesday.

“There was a passenger but no driver,” the chief said, adding that the man quickly made a cellphone call.

Questioned by the sergeant, Olano said that DeStephano was relieving himself in the woods, Wanamaker said.

The sergeant called for backup, and a patrol officer quickly found DeStephano hiding, he said.

After bringing him back to the street, DeStephano and Olano gave officers conflicting accounts of what they were up to, the chief said.

So a K9 unit from the Bergen County Sheriff’s Office was called in. READ MORE….