Police are looking for two men who broke into a Mahwah home Thursday night then fled after unsuccessfully trying to disarm the home’s security system.

According to police, surveillance video from the inside and outside of the Farmstead Road house shows two masked men breaking into the home at approximately 7 p.m. One of the men heads immediately to the security system in the basement, and then both men leave the home through a back door after failing to disarm the home’s alarm system, cops said.

Mahwah police officers and a K-9 unit responded to the home Thursday night as a burglary-in-progress but found no one in the house and nothing missing from it, Police Chief Jim Batelli said Friday.

“Wires had been pulled from the security system in the basement,” he said. 

Police also found an open door and footprints in the snow, he said. After an initial investigation, police believe the two left the house though the door and got into a car that had pulled up onto the cul-de-sac.

Police believe the men were dropped off on a nearby cul-de-sac, Finn Court, “where they jumped a fence and walked along the tree line toward the target house,” Batelli said.

Police are actively looking for two suspects seen in the surveillance video, Batelli said. One would-be burglar is about 6 feet tall, with a thin build, wearing blue or black pants, a black hoodie, “Timberland-type” work boots, a ski mask and gloves. The second is also about 6 feet tall, with a stocky build and wearing similar clothing.

“It is a very active investigation and we are currently examining forensic evidence and surveillance images from various sources, as well as speaking with other law enforcement agencies in an attempt to identify the suspects,” Batelli said.

Have a question or news tip for Mahwah Patch? Contact editor Jessica Mazzola at Jessica.Mazzola@patch.com, or find us on Facebook and Twitter. For news straight to your inbox every morning, sign up for our daily newsletter.