Two people die in Princeton crash after attempted car thefts in Littlebrook neighborhood (updated)
At least two people are dead and one person was taken to the hospital after some teens tried to steal vehicles in the Littlebrook neighborhood in Princeton early Sunday afternoon. The crash took place on Route 27 near Roper Road just after 1:30 p.m. on Sunday.
The driver of the getaway vehicle, a Jeep, died in the crash. She was only 15. Another teen in the vehicle with her was hospitalized and was in critical condition as of Sunday evening. A woman from Kendall Park who was struck by the Jeep died at the scene. Names of the crash victims have not been released yet pending notification of relatives.
At about 12:40 p.m., a resident of the 100 block of Clover Lane reported to the police and a local official that people were attempting to steal vehicles parked at the resident’s property. The teens left and went to a house on Dodds Lane and stole an unlocked SUV. A Dodds Lane resident told Planet Princeton the car thieves almost struck the resident as they were speeding away in a black Jeep and the stolen SUV.
The group returned to the first Clover Lane residence again just before 1:30 p.m. and then sped away, crashing into other vehicles on Route 27. Some onlookers reported that the Jeep was being driven in an erratic manner before the crash. The SUV that was stolen from Dodds Lane was found in Newark on Sunday evening.
Official details regarding the crash and victims have not been released yet by the Mercer County Prosecutor or the Princeton Police. This story will be updated when more information is available.
Princeton Kingston Road was closed for several hours between Carnegie Drive and Roper Road due to the crash.
Numerous vehicle thefts have taken place in Princeton and surrounding towns in recent months. Often, the vehicles are stolen at night when people are asleep. The thieves target residential areas looking for unlocked vehicles.
Krystal Knapp is the founding editor of Planet Princeton. Follow her on Twitter @krystalknapp. She can be reached via email at editor AT planetprinceton.com. Send all letters to the editor and press releases to that email address.
Princeton is not immune to serious crime as you can clearly see by this debacle. To many people in Princeton think real crime is NIMBY. Wrong. The crime is in your backyard. Stop leaving your front doors open. Your cars unlocked with the keys in them. I know people who do these things on the reg in Princeton. They think Princeton is this hermetically sealed bubble that’s impervious to Crime. Let this be a Wake Up Call!
This isn’t a wake up call yes crimes can happen in Princeton but you rarely hear about them plus I get sick when people say oh wake up keep your doors locked it’s Princeton move to Chicago or something if you want to know true crime stop filling your head with nonsense
Crazy, just plain crazy.. Would like to hear about the rest of the story
This is beyond sad, tragic, and upsetting. How could this happen in broad daylight? My heart goes out to the victims and their families.
sad. especially since there were six things to do in Princeton today that did not include stealing cars.
These is kids my son know smh ????????♀️ this is EXACTLY Y I don’t want my son hanging around ppl like them.. U leave Newark to go all the way to Princeton n steal ppl vehicles ???? that the work damn hard for now ur life has been cut short smh ????????♀️
Thieves are not bright, have little if any empathy and are self centered. You are clearly not immune.Those that leave house or car unlocked are not very bright either.
I was on my way to McCaffrey’s via Route 27 when I came upon all the traffic cones, police cars and emergency vehicles. I had to take a long detour around the affected area to get to the store. At the time, I just assumed it was some kind of emergency repairs being made on the road. When I left McCafrrey’s about an hour later, I was surprised to see that Route 27 was still blockaded and I had to take another detour. Then I noticed ambulances and that something much more serious was going on than road repairs. Thanks for the good reporting, such a horrible tragedy, condolences to all the victims. I was planning on leaving home earlier but didn’t; I could have been on that road when the teen driver was careening all over the place. Very chilling. I am just so shocked that people still leave their cars unlocked and even with valuables and keys in the car.
Not only car theft but breaking and entering locked front doors to burglarize homes . We live a quarter of a mile from the police station yet this happened to us in broad daylight. Our locked front door was broken. The detective in charge said it was an opportunistic burglary, meaning the thieves were cruising the neighborhood and saw us leave. A big safe box containing jewelry, passports etc…was hauled . Also told not to expect any recovery of the stolen goods as jewelry will be melted and other items sold for drugs. We had never heard of burglaries in our area, yet after it happened to us neighbors came out to tell us similar stories that happened to their acquaintances.
Given the age of the thief who died, you have to wonder if it was a gang initiation. Very sad for all involved.
An innocent mother of two was killed in this horrific crash. Her family will never see her again. Her daughter, whom I know, will marry next year, without her mother by her side. This tragedy is sickening. A 15 year old driving and dead, too? The whole thing is just so sad.
How do you know they left Newark to commit the crimes?
At the end of the day they kids! Lives have been lost! How can u be so cold…if u do your job as a parent it don’t matter who they’re around because they will have good judgement!
Cut it out! Lives were lost she paid for her mistake, where’s the compassion?!!!
They left for Princetin in a Jeep, that as we read, was stolen, too. They tried to rob other houses before they snatched SUV. Why are you asking the question? What else do you think that were planning to do? They did what they did. They killed an innocent woman, a 15 year old girl who did not how to drive killed the woman, and she killed herself. How such tragedies can be avoided?
Princeton gangs are you Fr you sound dumb right now so anyone who steals is in gang?
What we should learn form this tragedy, is to find our who pushed these kids to come to Princeton in a stolen car, to do more robberies. Who ordered them to do it. I do not believe that a girl who is 15 and looks liked a child, with another 14 year old, could have such an horrific idea. She was made to do it, and we, the society should find out who forced them to come to Princeton and to do it, The family of the dead girl, a girl who killed an innocent woman from Kendall Park – the family of the girl should demand the answers, should learn with whom their daugher hanged out with and demand that those people would become acountable for the crimes commtted. We have to explore the roots of the problem, who made a 15 year old girl to become a tool to commit an awful crime.
We could only imagine what would happen if the police would pursue the stolen SUV, and many more people in Princeton would be killed in the chase. We should thank those officer who stop the chase on the Snowden Ln.