Port Authority police officers pulled over a driver on Friday for driving in the high-occupancy vehicle lane because it looked like he was alone. He wasn't—he actually had two apparently undocumented immigrants who claimed that he kidnapped them.
According to Cliffview Pilot, "PAPD Police Officer Angela Tate stopped the SUV with a Texas license plate in the HOV lane just after 8 a.m. yesterday because" driver Luis Moreno Jr. "'appeared to be the only person in the vehicle'... The HOV lane requires three or more occupants for access."
But Moreno told the officer, "I have two passengers in the back" and rolled down the rear passenger window to let Tate see two men in the third row of the SUV. But when Moreno started to drive away, one man stuck his head out the window and yelled, "Help me! Help me!"
Tate told Moreno to stop, but he kept driving, so back-up PAPD officers assisted in stopping him. When they inspected the car, they found that the rear windows and door locks had been disabled. The man who yelled for help said he was an immigrant from Guatemala, claiming that Moreno picked him up in Mexico "for a fee" and had agreed to drive him to Maryland—but then demanded more money and kept him.
The other man in the car, an Asian immigrant, also said he was being held against his will. Moreno, who was wanted for parole violations is Texas, was hit with charges including two counts of kidnapping and driving with a suspended license. He is being held on $1 million bail at the Bergen County Jail.
