While he was at Quick Chek on Valley Road, an ambulance driver saw a man run out of the store with a pack of cigarettes and he pursued the getaway car, using his ambulance radio to tell police where the vehicle was headed, according to authorities.

Scott Christopher Mauterer, 32, of Kearny, went to the register and asked for a pack of Newports last Thursday, May 8, at 12:19 a.m., police said. When he handed the clerk half of a $5 bill and four quarters as payment, the cashier said she couldn’t accept the torn greenback, and Mauterer nabbed the cigarettes, bolted from the store and hopped into his black 1989 Honda Accord, according to police.

The EMT followed in his ambulance, without turning its emergency lights on, as Mauterer drove north on Valley Road, all the while radioing his location to the police, officials said. Officers pulled the car over on Valley Road just south of Bellevue Avenue.

Mauterer was arrested and charged with shoplifting. He was released at 3:30 a.m.

n A burglar stole $20,000 in Social Security checks belonging to a Bloomfield Avenue apartment tenant last Wednesday, May 7.

The victim left for work at 7 a.m., and when he returned home at 9:40 p.m., his door seemed to be jammed. Once he got it open, he realized somebody had kicked it in. The suspect took 10 Social Security checks worth $2,000 each and $10 cash.

n A burglar stole a $5,000 necklace and 50 other pieces of jewelry after ransacking a woman’s apartment on St. Luke’s Place, police said.

The suspect pried open the door, cracked open five suitcases inside the dwelling unit and dumped their contents on the floor between 7:15 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. last Friday, May 9. Inside the luggage were small boxes containing the valuables, including the aforementioned necklace containing 160 grams of gold.

n Four-hundred dollars in unknown denominations were stolen out of the wallet of a Washington Avenue man whose home was burglarized while he was hospitalized, police said.

The crime happened while the victim’s wife was visiting him last Saturday, May 10, between 11:40 a.m. and 7 p.m., police said. The suspect shattered a small pane of glass in the home’s backdoor, shoved his hand through the hole and unlocked the door. After rummaging through dresser drawers in the master bedroom, the burglar found the wallet. Have information that could help police? Call Detective Terence Turner at 973-509-4724.

n Someone kicked in the door to a Bloomfield Avenue apartment at some point between 7 a.m. and 11:30 p.m. on Wednesday, May 7, police said. After kicking in the door, the intruder went through a closet in the bedroom and several dresser drawers, leaving the bedroom in disarray, and stole $2 in change.

A man was found hiding in his mother’s bathroom, in violation of a court order requiring that he keep away from her Walnut Street apartment, police said.

The apartment building’s managerial staff called police to report "an unwanted party" last Friday, May 9, at 10:55 a.m., authorities said. Esteban Barrett Jr., 42, of East Orange, who had been charged with trespassing on the property previously and had been instructed by a judge to stay away, was spotted again heading to his mother’s dwelling unit, according to police. When police arrived, they located Barrett, but it seemed his mom was not home, police said. He was arrested and charged with the following outstanding warrants, in addition to a $1,979 warrant out of Montclair: two warrants from Orange totaling $2,004; two from East Orange for $1,108; and one from Newark for $500.

n Someone tried ripping the spoiler off the trunk lid of a 2000 Acura Integra parked on North Mountain Avenue between 12:30 and 5 a.m. last Thursday, May 8. The spoiler was torn off and left hanging by some wires.

n A man trying to perform "trick moves" on someone else’s car made several dents in it last Saturday, May 10, between 2:30 and 2:45 a.m., police said.

The 2001 Chevrolet Impala, belonging to a man from Newark who was deejaying at Mango’s Reggae Café on Bloomfield Avenue, had a long crack in the windshield and three dents on the passenger’s side doors and back fender. Witnesses informed the car owner and police that they saw a man jump on and off the car several times.

n A man with a warrant from the Essex County Sheriff’s Department, charging that he had not paid child support, was arrested when a Montclair officer couldn’t see his temporary, paper license plate through the dark tint of his Jeep’s back window, police said.

Lester Ingram, 31, of Orange, was pulled over in a Jeep Cherokee near the intersection of North Mountain and Bloomfield avenues last Friday, May 9, at 11:31 a.m., police said. An officer driving westbound up Bloomfield Avenue got behind the truck, saw that it seemed to have no license plates, and stopped Ingram, according to authorities.

n East Orange resident Altarek Saxton, 21, was handed over by the East Orange police and brought to Montclair Police Headquarters after 2 a.m. Wednesday, May 7, to be charged with two outstanding traffic warrants totaling $1,000.

Two global positioning systems were stolen from cars parked on St. Luke’s Place last Saturday night, May 10, into the morning of May 11.

The GPS inside a Honda SUV, parked near the corner of St. Luke’s and Bloomfield Avenue, was stolen between 8:20 p.m. and 12:48 a.m., police said. The thief broke in by smashing the front passenger’s side window.

In the other case, a 2001 Pontiac Aztec was broken into on May 10 between 9:30 p.m. and 11 the next morning and the owner’s Garmin GPS unit, worth $500, was stolen. Again the suspect smashed a window to get inside.

Police are advising motorists to hide their global positioning systems when they park.

Officers have been seeing numerous burglaries to vehicles recently in which suspects shatter windows to get inside cars and steal GPS or satellite radio units.

Drivers are advised to conceal those devices and their accessories, such as the wiring and mounting contraptions, which are giveaways that a GPS unit is stashed somewhere in the car. Even the telltale suction cup marks on the windows should be wiped away, police warn.

James Bridges Jr., 57, of Montclair, was arrested and charged with shoplifting three steaks from the Lackawanna Plaza Pathmark on Sunday, May 11, at 11:05 a.m., police said. Store security guards witnessed Bridges conceal the steaks in his jacket and detained him until police arrived, according to authorities. He was arrested and charged with shoplifting and bail was set at $1,000 cash. He also had a $1,097 warrant from Montclair, plus warrants from East Orange, Irvington and Newark, police indicated.

— DAN PROCHILO