Authorities: New Jersey lovebirds swipe computer, concoct crazy tale

They blew it.

New Jersey sweethearts Sara Blasse and Henry Goode Jr. had a decent crime of opportunity on their hands earlier this week when they swiped a $500 laptop from a parked car in Chesilhurst, authorities said.

OK, the heist wasn't perfect - the owner of the computer spotted them and called police - but the darling couple managed to escape the long arm of the law in Blasse's Kia Sorento.

Then Goode crashed the Kia, Blasse broke her arm, a bunch of other things went wrong and Blasse tried to lie her way out of the whole debacle by telling cops that she got hurt in a car accident while performing oral sex on a male prostitute, authorities said.

When it was all said and done, the couple ended up behind bars and investigators were left scratching their heads at the pair's seriously botched attempt at committing small-time theft.

The whole sloppy affair started about 6 a.m. Saturday, when Goode, 27, and Blasse, 23, noticed a Hewlett-Packard laptop inside a car on Miller Street in Chesilhurst, said Jason Laughlin, spokesman for the Camden County Prosecutor's Office.

The couple stole the computer and took off when they were spotted by the laptop's owner, who immediately called 9-1-1, Laughlin said.

Goode crashed the Kia at Atlantic and Sherman avenues shortly thereafter.

Blasse broke her arm in the crack-up, but the couple focused their attention on trying to torch the Kia by setting fire to paper towels in the rear seat and gas tank, Laughlin said.

The gas tank didn't ignite, so the not-so-dynamic duo ran away in different directions.

Laughlin said Goode hopped a fence at the South Jersey Gas facility in Winslow, broke into a company van and plowed through a fence.

He headed to Atlantic County, tried - and failed - to torch the van by setting fire to the gas tank, and then headed to his house in Newtonville, Laughlin said.

Blasse, meanwhile, was taken to the South Jersey Healthcare Regional Medical Center in Vineland by her parents.

Later that day, she told investigators that she had been carjacked and suffered a broken arm during a frightening encounter, Laughlin said.

She then changed her story and claimed that she picked up a male prostitute and was performing oral sex on him when the Kia crashed, he noted.

When investigators didn't buy either story, Blasse confessed that Goode had crashed the Kia when they fled the scene of the computer theft, Laughlin said.

Blasse, of Galli Drive near East Wheat Road in Vineland, was charged with aggravated arson, burglary, hindering apprehension by filing a false report and related offenses. She was later released on bail.

Goode, of 10th Street near Meyner Lane in Newtonville, was arrested Wednesday and charged with aggravated arson, burglary, theft and related offenses. He was being held at the Camden County Jail.

The laptop, Laughlin noted, was returned to its owner.