Haddonfield is ‘not Disneyland,’ say residents concerned about safety after rash of break-ins and car thefts

It was early Thanksgiving morning, before sunrise, when Marcus DeAngelis was startled awake by his home security alarm blaring and loud sounds coming from downstairs in his Haddonfield home.

When DeAngelis got to the top of the foyer stairs to investigate, he saw several masked men downstairs. The intruders rushed out when they realized they’d been discovered.

Police said they have not arrested any of the suspects, who managed to steal DeAngelis’ wife’s new Range Rover. Nobody who was home at the time — DeAngelis, his wife, and their 2½-year-old son — was hurt.

The car, he said, was found days later, more than a hundred miles away, in the Bronx.

“We still are living on edge. We still are not resting comfortably at night,” said DeAngelis. “We are not to a point where we are comfortable in our own home. We still feel very violated.”

The break-in at the DeAngelis house is one of a spate of criminal incidents in Haddonfield in the last few months that have riled up the Camden County community and mobilized a group of concerned residents to form a group pushing for more transparency from the police department about reporting crime and improved safety protocols.

The group, Haddonfield Safe, wants the Haddonfield Police Department, currently at 21 officers, to add more officers to replace a handful who have retired over the years. They also want more transparency about crime in their borough and what the department is doing to combat it.

Police and borough officials, however, say that Haddonfield, with a population of 12,550, is as safe as it’s ever been, and that the borough is among the leaders in transparency when it comes to providing information on crime in town.

According to Haddonfield Police Department data, crime is low in the South Jersey borough 15 minutes outside of Philadelphia.

As of Friday, there have been 13 burglaries — 5 residential burglaries and 8 commercial burglaries — in Haddonfield, according to police data. That number represents a slight increase from last year’s 11 burglaries by the same date, data shows.

There were 57 thefts — which includes shoplifting, bicycle theft, and general theft — and 3 motor vehicle thefts as of Friday, police data shows, compared to 48 thefts and 3 motor vehicle thefts by the same time last year.

Last year, there were 27 burglaries reported in Haddonfield, down from 34 in 2022.

Motor vehicle theft increased to 14 reported incidents last year, compared to 9 in 2022. Thefts increased slightly in 2023, at 131 incidents, up from 129 in 2022.

The data, however, is only one side of the story, said Chadd Levine, one of the cofounders of Haddonfield Safe. Despite what he acknowledged is a perception of Haddonfield as an affluent, idyllic community, Levine said the invasive nature of recent break-ins in town has created fear among residents.

The group formed after two break-ins in Haddonfield on April 3 — including one in which police said two cars were stolen — and what Levine says was an uptick in reports of break-ins on a local Facebook page. The group, he said, wants the borough to provide information on crime in a more timely manner and follow up with residents on arrests and prosecutions.

It also wants the department to add six officers to its ranks, said Levine.

“To us, statistics don’t mean anything, stories do,” he said. “Two bad break-ins compared to statistically being safe, to me is enough to constitute some level of action and acknowledgment.”

“Crime does take place in Haddonfield,” he added. “It’s not Disneyland.”

Haddonfield Mayor Colleen Bianco Bezich said she understands residents’ concerns in the wake of the April incidents, where the vulnerability of being at home and asleep while someone breaks in amplifies fears. But Bezich said that Haddonfield’s police department was constantly looking for ways to improve safety and that the borough was already extremely transparent, releasing police crime reports every month at public meetings and information via the borough app.

“It’s also very disconcerting if you’re living in your home to think that while you’re there asleep in bed or getting up about to come downstairs, someone would be brazen enough to commit a burglary,” said Bezich. “But from a numbers perspective, a pure data perspective, we are at a level of burglaries that quite frankly is on par with last year, which is the lowest number of burglaries in a decade.”

“Our policing efforts, and our patrols, and the technology we’re utilizing, and the resources were sharing with neighboring departments and the state police task force, we’re constantly working to improve and collaborate. I think we’re seeing the results of that,” she added.

Haddonfield Police Chief Jason Cutler, who has served as the borough’s top cop for six years, said that he is “always looking to hire more officers” and that he and Bezich were looking to apply for a grant that could help pay for two more officers soon. Police were still investigating and searching for the burglars involved in last month’s break-ins, he said.

“We have altered patrol schedules and deployment of manpower,” said Cutler. “Our detectives are working in close coordination with federal, state, county, and other law enforcement agencies to apprehend the person(s) responsible and to help prevent future crime from occurring.”

As far as transparency, the police department and the borough administration — which Cutler said was among the best in his time in the department when it came to releasing information — was often bound by a need to protect residents’ privacy and to not divulge policing tactics.

Haddonfield Safe plans to attend the May 28 commissioners’ meeting and ask Bezich, Cutler, and the commissioners what they have done to improve safety in the last month or so. The meeting will take place at Borough Hall, right across the street from Caroline’s Luxuries.

On May 15, several men broke into the luxury boutique around 1:30 a.m., smashing the storefront window and stealing more than $300,000 in jewelry, luxury handbags, and other items, said owner Karolina Yosef. On Thursday, there was still plywood where windows used to be, a stark reminder of what Haddonfield Safe means to hold borough officials accountable for.

“Haddonfield definitely needs to protect its citizens and its businesses,” said Yosef, who’s had her boutique in town since 2019. “This shouldn’t be happening in a small little town.”

While Haddonfield is much safer than it may appear to some of its residents, people who live there deserve more answers about what is being done to fight crime, said Levine.

“It’s very easy for people to say it’s Haddonfield, what are they concerned about?” he said. “Well guess what, you don’t live here and you don’t understand it doesn’t matter what town it is, we all deserve to feel safe. And that starts with our leadership. And if they’re communicating well, you feel less concerned. If they’re not communicating well, that’s how misinformation and rhetoric and rumors start.”