Terrifying moments were caught on camera for a family in Brick Township this week when a group of men broke into their home looking for car keys. It's a story repeated over and over in New Jersey in the last few years.

Victor Alfieri says it's the third time in three years thieves tried taking a car - and this time they got away with it.

"If we had gone downstairs and saw six or seven guys in our kitchen, you can imagine how scary that would be," said Alfieri.

Alfieri says he feels lucky his family slept through what he says would have been sheer terror early Tuesday morning at his home near Routes 88 and 70.

"While my kids were sleeping, about five to seven guys came to our house around 2:30 a.m. They were at our house upwards of a half hour,” he says.

Security video captured the moments the brazen thieves surrounded his home and driveway, looking for a way inside. They finally broke through a garage window, then, into the kitchen.

"In the middle of the night, one of my kids came into my room and said they heard stomping downstairs and it was a rainy night and I disregarded it. ‘Just go back to sleep, it's OK,’" he said.

The number of thefts steadily rose from 2021 to 2023 statewide - more than 16,600 taken last year according to New Jersey State Police statistics. A Range Rover was stolen out of a victim's garage in broad daylight not far from Alfieri’s house in April 2022.

Alfieri's Mercedes is the first car theft statistic of 2024 in Brick Township, where both previous years saw 10 thefts, according to police.

"To have an attempted robbery in my home twice over the past six months - three times total since we lived there - I don't have a whole sense of security that this is either becoming less of a problem or the numbers are statistically slowing down,” Alfieri says.

Police continue to warn New Jersey residents to keep their cars locked and inside of their garages. Residents should also keep their keys and fobs away from easy access points like the front door and windows.

Alfieri’s Mercedes has yet to be found.