By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Thursday, February 7, 1991
The Record (New Jersey) | Four Star B | NEWS | Page B01
More than 200 North Jersey and New York State residents whose homes were hit by burglars filed through the Bergenfield police station this week, searching through a cache of recovered goods for their belongings.
Detective T.J. Lee Jr. was directing people Wednesday morning past the makeshift jewelry table arrayed with dozens of rings, broaches, necklaces, armbands, medallions, and wristwatches. Larger items such as fur coats and electronic equipment were displayed in the basement.
“You may step up close,” Lee said to the procession. “If you see anything that you recognize, tell me. I’ll be glad to show it to you. “
Bergen County Prosecutor John J. Fahy said at a briefing Wednesday that the items on display were among hundreds stolen from North Jersey homes and recovered in raids at two Bergenfield residences last week.
As of Wednesday afternoon, some 215 people had visited the station, but only a handful of items were identified by their owners.
A Teaneck woman brought a photograph of herself wearing a 24-inch herringbone gold necklace that was recovered in the raids. Detective Stephen Cassiero of the Mamaroneck Police Department in Westchester County identified a .357-caliber Magnum revolver that had been stolen in the town. It was one of four handguns recovered by police.
But most people could not identify any possessions.
A Washington Township couple searching unsuccessfully through the haul said all the gifts they received for their 50th wedding anniversary in October, along with jewelry and money, were stolen from their home Dec. 15, hours after they left for a vacation in upstate New York.
The couple, who declined to be identified out of fear they would be victimized again, hurriedly returned home the next day to find their home ransacked and strewn with debris. Peacock ornaments that had been mounted on the wall were on the floor, shattered.
“I hope it hit them on the head when they fell to the floor,” the man said.
A woman and her husband who accompanied Ridgefield Police Lt. Vincent Zacco to the station also didn’t see any property belonging to them.
“I was saying I wasn’t going to get my hopes up, but they were up,” she said, the disappointment evident in her face.
In the raids Friday night, detectives from Teaneck, Bergenfield, Englewood, Fort Lee, Hackensack, and the recently formed burglary squad of the Prosecutor’s Office seized the stolen goods at 16-B Morrissey Walk and 12 Carnation St. in Bergenfield.
Fahy declined to estimate the value of the items seized.
Police are hoping that many more items can be identified by their owners, and have set another session for residents to come into the station on Friday from 5 to 8 p.m.
“We are hoping to have a lot of victims identify items so that we can not only give their property back to them, but sign additional complaints against the defendants,” said Bergenfield Detective Sgt. James J. Stoltenborg.
For instance, Stoltenborg said that Saulter, who raised his $100,000 bail and was released from the Bergen County Jail Tuesday, had been rearrested in Teaneck by detectives from the Bergen County Sheriff’s Department and the Bergenfield Police Department for violation of probation and on a complaint stemming from a burglary in Ridgefield. A woman from the borough identified a gold necklace with a diamond anchor as one of the items stolen in a burglary of her home.
On Wednesday, Englewood Municipal Court Judge Joseph M. Clark ordered Saulter held without bail for violation of probation on a marijuana-possession charge.
Beckford and Hicks, who are out on bail, also faced additional charges, police said.
Keywords: BERGENFIELD; POLICE; BURGLARY; VICTIM
Caption: 2 COLOR PHOTOS BY STEVE HOCKSTEIN / THE RECORD 1 – Bracelets, bangles, and chains – part of the cache of jewelry recovered by Bergenfield police – await their owners, left. 2 – A fur held by Detective Jonathan D. Cochran was among the items taken by burglars in New Jersey and New York State.
ID: 17332372 | Copyright © 1991, The Record (New Jersey)
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