Shocking Home Invasion: Assemblyman’s Family Targeted In Hazlet

❗ Terrifying home invasion while Assemblyman's family slept
❗ Thugs stole the legislator's BMW
❗ Surveillance video released

A terrifying home invasion has shattered any sense of safety for the family of a New Jersey Assemblyman.

Paul Kanitra has released surveillance video from a home security system of the night thugs broke into the Hazlet home where his family was sleeping.

You can view the entire video at the end of this article.

Kanitra was working in Washington, D.C., when burglars tore of the screens at the home and entered through the front door just before 6 a.m. Wednesday morning.

In less than three minutes, they had found the key fob to his BMW and were gone, Kanitra said.

"The group stole my vehicle with State Assembly plates on it and sped off to Newark," Kanitra wrote on Facebook, "They ripped the GPS out of the vehicle to try and keep it from being tracked further."

Kanitra and his family have been staying in Hazlet with his mother-in-law while his home is being renovated in Point Pleasant Beach.

He says the whole ordeal has left his wife and mother-in-law "incredibly shaken."

"Any semblance of safety they have is now gone. They feel violated. Fearful of going to sleep again tonight," he wrote.

"Omg! They were in the home!"

Kanitra spoke with New Jersey 101.5 Morning Host Bill Spadea this morning and recounted the terrifying ordeal.

"My wife heard them peel out with the car," Kanitra said, "She ran down the stairs to see what was going on. She sees the door is open and the windows are broken. She thought her mom was attacked."

Once she realized everyone was safe, though, came another horrifying thought. "Oh my God, they were in the home. We realized how close they were to the family."

Unfortunately, Kanitra said, they knew this could happen.

"Sometimes you think it couldn't happen to you. We knew it could happen," Kanitra told Spadea, "We see crime rising across New Jersey."

Anger for Gov. Murphy

Kanitra praised the police, but criticized policies put in place by Gov. Murphy and Democrats in the legislature that allow these criminal enterprises to operate freely in New Jersey.

"We have created the situation because of he laws we have passed," Kanitra lamented, "Gangs recruit these kids to steal cars because they know Jersey won't do anything to them."

The FBI/Newark says kids are paid as much as $2,000 per stolen vehicle.

Kanitra says the governor did reach out to him, but he didn't want to speak with him.

"Gov Murphy texted me. I didn't text him back because of how pissed off I was."

Car theft epidemic

Car thefts and home invasions have been a major concern of families and law enforcement across New Jersey.

Shocking statistics from the New Jersey State Police indicate two cars are stolen every hour of every day in the Garden State.

The thefts, particularly of high-end vehicles, are being driven by sophisticated criminal enterprises.

Many of these thefts are fueling international terrorism, according to the FBI.

Jim Dennehy, the special agent in charge of the Newark FBI office, says investigators now see more high-end vehicles being shipped overseas to help fund terror organizations.

“It is an easy way of getting money overseas, and it is very hard for federal agencies to detect,” Dennehy said in an interview with New Jersey 101.5.

New Jersey is a rich feeding ground for this type of criminal enterprise. The state is densely populated, it contains a large number of high-end vehicles and its proximity to multiple shipping ports makes this type of crime easier to facilitate.

Dennehy says vehicles are being shipped to “mostly western African countries” to provide funding to terrorist organizations including ISIS.

Kanitra says if it were not for the quick action of the New Jersey State Police, his car would have met the same fate.

He says police told them "They bring it (stolen cars) to a place in Newark where they rip out the GPS. The it's a race to get it to a middleman in the Bronx, who then tries to get it in a shipping container and then send it on a ship to Africa or the Middle East as quickly as possible."

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