According to sources, one or both of the men arrested for home burglary in Ho-Ho-Kus this week have confessed to similar break-ins in Rockland County. Sloatsburg residents were unnerved in late summer by a rash of break-ins very like those under investigation in Saddle River and Ho-Ho-Kus.

As reported Friday by the crime reporting site Cliffview Pilot, “Alan DeStephano Jr. and Jeremy Olano, both 26, of Sloatsburg,” were taken into custody Monday afternoon and confessed to one or more burglaries in Rockland.

“We appreciate the resources that were assigned by all the law enforcement agencies to assist in resolving these burglaries,” said Sloatsburg Mayor Carl Wright about the on-going investigation into the Sloatsburg burglaries. “All our residents feel a little safer that these two individuals have been taken into custody and will not present a threat to our community, or others, hopefully, for some time,” Wright said.

Olano served a jail sentence for holding up the Sterlington Station Deli in Sloatsburg in June of 2012, when he rode his bike over to Sterlington and, using a BB gun, got the clerk on duty to empty the contents of the store register. Sloatsburg Elementary school was locked down at that time due to reports that an armed robber was in the vicinity. Police quickly found Olano at his Apple Street apartment apparently still wearing the red-striped pants colorfully described by robbery witnesses.

Olano and DeStephano are known entities in the Sloatsburg community, as both are originally from this area. Although arrested with Olano Monday, DeStephano had no relationship to the Sterlington Station incident.

Several police jurisdictions in New York and New Jersey have an interest in the duo. CliffviewPilot.com, which covers all sorts of crime activity throughout NJ, reported that the two men essentially met their match Monday in Ho-Ho-Kus when an alert police officer investigated their car, which was parked on the side of a small road just off of Franklin Turnpike near Rt. 17. Other agencies were called in, according to the Pilot report, and a Bergen County Sheriff K9 unit eventually lead officers to a nearby house with a broken window and discarded items.

DeStephano and Olano were taken into custody, apparently confessed to various crimes and were still being held in the Bergen County Jail (at the initial publication of this article) while the investigation continues.