A would-be car thief who tried to steal a car from the garage of a home in the Village Grande development left empty-handed in the Sept. 5 incident, according to the West Windsor Police Department.
The thief entered the victim’s unlocked Mercedes-Benz, which was parked in the driveway, police said. The thief rummaged through the car and found the garage door opener, which he used to open the garage door to get into the garage.
Once inside the garage, the thief rummaged through the victim’s Honda and found the keys to the car, police said. He started to back the car out of the garage, but he had forgotten that he had left the passenger door open, according to reports.
When the passenger door of the Honda got caught on a ladder that had been left in the garage, the thief jumped out of the car and ran to a dark-colored sedan that was waiting nearby and drove off.
The attempted theft of the Honda was one of several vehicle burglaries reported to police at the Village Grande development, including one in which a caller reported seeing someone in his car while it was parked inside the garage shortly before 3 a.m. Sept. 5.