Michael W Hendrickson, who earlier this month turned 45, was caught trying to hide behind a car around 11:40 p.m. Wednesday after he’d “broken the front window of a vehicle, lighted it on fire and fled on foot toward Ray street,” Capt. Darren Sucorowski said.
An area resident turned a garden hose on the car until Garfield firefighters arrived and extinguished the blaze, Sucorowski said.
Detective Lts. Joseph Delaney and Mario Pozo, Detective David Coniglio and a detective from the Bergen County Sheriff’s Bureau of Criminal Identification determined arson was committed and began to look for Hendrickson, the captain said.
A sheriff’s K-9 unit joined the search, which ended two hours later when Officers Radowslaw Kata and Nicholas Kopacz found Hendrickson in the area of MacArthur Avenue and Frederick Street, he said.
He “initially tried to hide behind a car but surrendered without incident” after the officers ordered him out, Sucorowski said.
Hendrickson remained held Thursday afternoon in the Bergen County Jail, charged with arson and criminal mischief.
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