Eighteen People, Artificial Grass, and a Theft Charge Apiece

Police say 18 adults were arrested after allegedly taking artificial turf.

Eighteen. For fake grass.

According to Fair Lawn police information reported by Patch, the arrests happened around 10:13 p.m. on September 22, 2026, outside a vacant building near River Road and Hopper Avenue in Fair Lawn, New Jersey. The adults ranged in age from 18 to 43. Each was charged with theft.

There’s a number you don’t expect to see next to artificial turf. Eighteen is enough people to make a group chat unbearable. Here it’s in a police report about grass that never needs watering.

The building was vacant, which is one of those details that might briefly make this sound less strange. It wasn’t. Vacant doesn’t mean everything outside is up for grabs. It means nobody’s using the building. The turf, according to police, was still worth making 18 theft arrests over.

The reports don’t say how much turf was allegedly taken or what it was worth. They don’t identify the business or say why anyone wanted it. So I can’t tell you whether this was an enormous quantity of fake lawn or whether 18 people somehow became involved over an amount you could step across.

That’s the maddening part. The one measurement this story gives us is the number of people.

NorthJersey.com also reported that the Bergen County Sheriff’s Office helped transport those arrested. The report doesn’t say how the 18 arrived, but getting them away from the scene apparently required assistance. That’s quite an ending for an incident involving lawn material with no lawn attached.

The charges are allegations, and the cited reports don’t say how the cases turned out. Fair enough. Still, I’d like to know how much turf was there.

We already know how many people there were.

Sources

• 18 People Caught Stealing Turf From Vacant Bergen County Business: Police (2026-09-24)
• More than a dozen charged with stealing artificial turf in Fair Lawn (2026-09-23)

Information checked: October 7, 2026.