Fair Lawn residents, business owners and police got a minor respite in May from the burglary bug that has swept through town over the past few months.

Although burglaries were down from March and April of this year, last month's eight burglaries -- two residential, six non-residential -- are still more than the number of recorded burglaries in all but one month in 2011, according to Uniform Crime Report data provided by the police department.

Over the past three months, Fair Lawn has experienced just one fewer burglary than it did in all of 2009.

On the year, burglaries are elevated nearly 40 percent and larcenies are up more than 30 percent from last year. Total index crimes have risen by about 6 percent since 2011.

Stores and restaurants have been the hardest hit since March, with non-residences (i.e. stores, offices, etc.) accounting for more than 70 percent of the 33 burglaries over the last three months.

Police attributed a number of the commercial jobs committed in March and April, including the five businesses hit on April 22, to a single serial burglar who's believed to have committed close to 150 burglaries in northern New Jersey since 2009.

Detective Lt. Michael Uttel said the serial burglar -- whom police say never deviates from what has been his highly successful smash-and-grab break-in method -- has been laying low recently, as has been his modus operandi in past summers.

The police department and county task force created to apprehend Northern New Jersey's serial smash-and-grabber are actively working to identify and arrest the man, Uttel said.

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Click here to find UCR data from 1990 to 2010 

Click here for more info on the Uniform Crime Reporting Methodology

For the first five months of each year:

Burglaries by month for the past six months:

For a full breakdown of the last six years of Fair Lawn's UCR data:

*2012 crime statistics are through May.

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