PAIR ARRESTED TRYING TO FLEE

By MICHAEL O. ALLEN | Wednesday, February 5, 1992

The Record (New Jersey) | 5 Star | NEWS | B03

Two men suspected of a string of robberies in New Jersey were being treated Tuesday at Bellevue Hospital Center for broken limbs after they injured themselves trying to escape from Fort Lee and New York police officers, police said.

Ramon Harper, 24, of Edison and Derrick Sheridan, 31, of Avenel were arrested Monday night in New York, police said.

Rochelle Park Detective Don Simon said the men grabbed a 33-year-old woman as she walked into the West Passaic Street Shop-Rite at about 9:50 p.m. One of them pulled her pocketbook from her shoulder, Simon said.

Fort Lee police spotted the men’s car approaching the George Washington Bridge and chased it into the city.

The suspects abandoned their vehicle and jumped off a roof 25 feet to the ground, where they were arrested, Royster said.

Police said Harper and Sheridan are suspects in recent strong-arm robberies in communities including Hackensack, Lodi, Wayne, West Orange, Denville, Parsippany, and Rahway.

POLICE NAB 3, THWART TWO THEFT ATTEMPTS

Byline: By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Saturday, January 11, 1992

The Record (New Jersey) | Two Star B | NEWS | Page A05

Two men were arrested after police got a tip that they were stealing luggage from a warehouse in the city, police said.

Officers George Alston and George Coleman, responding about 10:10 a.m. Thursday, arrested Ivan Torres, 34, and Alberto Vega, 37, both of West New York, after a short foot chase, Police Capt. C. Kenneth Tinsley said.

The two were charged with burglary, theft, and resisting arrest and were being held Friday in the Bergen County Jail on $10,000 bail.

The warehouse, located at 35 S. Van Brunt St., is an unmanned storage building for a North Bergen luggage store, Tinsley said. Vega and Torres backed a truck up to the rear of the warehouse and had filled it with 45 cases of portfolios worth about $12,000 when the officers arrived.

They fled on seeing police, but the officers found them hiding near the Englewood Municipal Building a few minutes later, Tinsley said.

In an unrelated incident later Thursday, police arrested William T. Blaine, 19, of 248 W. Forest Ave., Englewood, on charges of attempted armed robbery, aggravated assault, and resisting arrest, Tinsley said.

Officers responding to a report of a robbery in progress about 8:45 p.m. arrested Blaine after a short foot chase. Blaine was one of five men who allegedly tried to steal a bicycle at knifepoint from a 36-year-old Englewood man near the McDonald’s restaurant on West Palisade Avenue.

Blaine was being held on $7,500 bail in the Bergen County Jail.

POLICE CHASE, CHARGE SIX TEENS AFTER REPORT OF HOUSE BREAK-IN

By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Thursday, December 19, 1991

The Record (New Jersey) | 5 Star | NEWS | Page B02

Six Dwight Morrow High School students were charged with burglary and theft after police, responding to a report of a break-in at a house, caught the suspects after a chase.

Five of the students four girls ages 14 to 17, and a 15-year-old boy were taken into protective custody after the chase, which ended a few minutes after noon Tuesday in a field at the rear of the high school, police said. The five were released to their parents.

Police were looking for the sixth student, a 14-year-old girl, on Wednesday, Police Capt. C. Kenneth Tinsley said.

Several police officers on patrol, including Police Chief William Luciano, heard the report of the burglary at a house on Liberty Avenue, Tinsley said. A resident called police and told them he saw youths carrying brightly colored knapsacks coming out of his neighbor’s house.

Luciano and several patrolmen caught the students after a short foot chase.

The students had several rings and other jewelry determined to have been stolen from the Liberty Avenue home, along with a sealed United Parcel Service packet that had just been delivered to a Lantana Avenue address, police said.

A Bergen County police dog, employed to search the area because of the distance between where the students were caught and where the break-in was reported, found a knapsack containing wrapped presents and jewelry in a bush behind the burglarized home, police said.

Police could not say whether the students had been involved in other burglaries in the area.

“There have been previous burglaries in that area, and we’ve made arrests of young adults, but we haven’t linked these youngsters to other burglaries in the area,” Tinsley said.

Dwight Morrow Principal Richard Segall said he was unaware of the arrest but that the students would be appropriately punished if they had been charged with such crimes.

BURGLARY SUSPECT MAY NOT HAVE DROWNED

By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Saturday, April 20, 1991

The Record (New Jersey) | All Editions | NEWS | Page A04

A burglary suspect thought to have drowned after he leaped off a bridge into the Passaic River after a police chase may have escaped, police said Friday.
Police have developed new information that Herbert Pitts of 43 Graham Ave., Paterson, may have been seen running down a nearby highway ramp after the jump, police Lt. Ron Natale said.
“We combed the river thoroughly Wednesday and again yesterday,” Natale said. “We didn’t find any body. We are not absolutely positive that he did go into the river. We believe he may have, but there is a chance he did escape. Right now, we’ll continue on the assumption that Pitts is somewhere out there, possibly alive.”
A suspect in custody, Tyrone Jones, 28, of Paterson identified Pitts, 32, from a photograph as a suspect involved in the chase, which led to the drowning death of Terry Wilson, 25, also of Paterson.
The incident began Wednesday afternoon at the scene of a burglary in Hackensack. With Hackensack, Lodi, and Elmwood Park police pursuing, the suspects fled in a stolen van, weaving through traffic on Routes 46, 20, and 80 before crashing in the eastbound Route 80 lanes in Elmwood Park.
The men abandoned the van and ran across the highway, and Pitts and Wilson leaped 50 feet off the bridge into the river, near Market Street. Wilson’s body was later pulled from the river. Jones, who did not jump and was caught, was being held in the Bergen County Jail Annex on $100,000 bail.
Jones, charged by Hackensack police with 11 counts of theft, five counts of burglary, and one count each of receiving stolen property and resisting arrest, cooperated with investigators, giving them information on burglaries in Carlstadt, Fair Lawn, Maywood, Wyckoff, and other Bergen County communities.

Keywords: HACKENSACK; BRIDGE; BURGLARY; RIVER; MISSING PERSON; DEATH; VICTIM

COUNCILMAN TIPS OFF POLICE TO BURGLARY

By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Saturday, April 6, 1991

The Record (New Jersey) | All Editions | NEWS | Page A03

When he left home to go on a walk with his 9-year-old daughter Thursday night, little did Councilman Paul Ostrow know that he would witness a burglary, then start a manhunt.
As a result, township police charged Robert “Speedo” Merritt, 34, of 1088 Arlington Ave., Teaneck, with two counts of burglary and theft Friday. He was being held in lieu of $20,000 bail in the Bergen County Jail.
Ostrow, walking out of his home on Grayson Place at 7:17 p.m., heard a sound near a window of a nearby house, followed by the sound of a man falling inside the home.
“Are you OK? ” Ostrow, a member of the Teaneck Volunteer Ambulance Corps, said he asked the person, thinking it was his neighbor. “My first instinct was to see if anyone needed help or was hurt. “
The suspect asked Ostrow who he was before ordering him to get away from the house.
Ostrow and his daughter saw the man emerge from a window, come toward them, then cross the street and run in the opposite direction, toward Prince Street. He called Teaneck police from his home and gave them a description of the suspect and told them the direction he was headed in.
“When you actually see a human being in the act of this form of terror, you can’t understand how people can treat other people’s lives and property in a way that they would not like to be treated themselves,” Ostrow said.
Nothing was taken from the Grayson Place home. But when police saw Merritt walking east on the westbound side of Route 4, he had a pillowcase slung over his shoulder. The pillowcase contained several stereo and VCR items stolen from a Palisade Avenue home about 8 p.m. They chased him to Cranford Street, where a county police dog found him hiding behind shrubbery.
Merritt is also charged with possession of burglary tools, receiving stolen property, and driving with a suspended license, stemming from his arrest by Fort Lee police Feb. 19.

Keywords: TEANECK; GOVERNMENT; OFFICIAL; BURGLARY

BURGLARY SUSPECT TURNS HIMSELF IN

By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Thursday, April 4, 1991

The Record (New Jersey) | One Star | NEWS | B04

A 27-year-old Union City man, the second suspect in Monday’s burglary of a Bergen Boulevard home, turned himself in to borough police Tuesday and was charged with burglary and theft, police said.
Thomas Cook of 518 12th St. was being held in the Bergen County Jail on Wednesday in lieu of $25,000 bail.
Palisades Park Police Capt. Remo Framarin said the Bergen County Sheriff’s Department’s Bureau of Criminal Investigations and the Bergen County Burglary Squad, using fingerprint information and composites, identified Cook as a suspect in the burglary. Framarin said several law enforcement agencies are investigating the two men and others in connection with other burglaries in the county.
Police, responding Tuesday to a call about a prowler near a home that had been burglarized Monday, arrested Luis Ayala, 35, of Union City, as he hid in a wooded area east of Bergen Boulevard.
Ayala, also known as Raymond, was charged with burglary, possession of burglary tools, and possession of stolen credit cards. Fort Lee Police Chief John Orso said he was preparing charges against Ayala for six burglaries at the Horizon Apartments in Fort Lee during the past three weeks. The credit cards belonged to someone from Fort Lee, Palisades Park police said.
Palisades Park Municipal Court Judge Joseph Dimiglio set Ayala’s bail at $50,000. Ayala was being held in a secured unit at Bergen Pines County Hospital for undisclosed reasons.

Keywords: PALISADES PARK; THEFT

3 RUN AFOUL OF MURPHY’S LAW; BURGLARY SUSPECTS CAR WOULDN’T START

By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Wednesday, March 6, 1991

The Record (New Jersey) | Four Star B | NEWS | Page B03

Three burglary suspects ran into the long arm of Murphy’s Law early Monday morning: Just about everything that could go wrong did.
First, police said, the homeowner and his wife screamed when James Bradley burst into their bedroom. Then, beating a hasty retreat, Bradley jumped out of a kitchen window and ran to the getaway car, but the battery was dead, police added.
Bradley fled on foot, but his two accomplices were identified by the homeowner and arrested after they asked two township police officers for help in starting the car. Bradley was captured about an hour later, police said.
Bradley, 39, of 22 E. Clinton Ave., Bergenfield; Karla C. Bradley, 40, of 12 N. Front St., Bergenfield; and Kenneth Kees, 30, whose last known address was in Cliffside Park, were being held in the Bergen County Jail on Tuesday on $20,000 bail each.
James Bradley was charged with burglary. Karla Bradley and Kees were charged with conspiracy to commit burglary.
In his report, Teaneck Police Officer Thomas Melvin said James Bradley broke into the bedroom of the East Lawn Drive home shortly before the officers pulled up to the stalled 1985 Ford Thunderbird at 12:35 a.m. Monday.
The homeowner told police he heard someone break into a rear basement window, and then he heard footsteps coming up the stairs. When the suspect finally reached the master bedroom, the homeowner and his wife both screamed.
As Karla Bradley was asking Melvin and Police Officer Robert Carney to help jump-start the car, the officers noticed the homeowner beckoning them from the third-floor window of his home.
Bradley was picked up by Carney underneath the Route 4 overpass on Teaneck Road about 1:46 a.m., police said.

Keywords: TEANECK; THEFT

VICTIMS HOPE TO CLAIM STOLEN GOODS AT `BAZAAR’

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.

HACKENSACK MAN FACES CHARGES IN OUTBREAK OF CITY BURGLARIES

By Michael O. Allen and Tom Topousis, Record Staff Writers | Tuesday, January 8, 1991

The Record (New Jersey) | Four Star B | NEWS | Page B03

A 34-year-old city man, arrested after he allegedly broke into the Woolworth’s store on Main Street and stole a display stand full of watches, also was charged with six other burglaries in the city, police said.
Michael Griffin of 113 Sussex St. was arraigned in Hackensack City Court on Monday, charged with seven counts of burglary, one count of strong-arm robbery, and one count of theft from a person, said Police Chief William Iurato.
Griffin was arrested shortly after 5:10 a.m. Sunday when police responded to the Woolworth’s store at 149 Main St., where a burglar alarm had been triggered, Iurato said.
Detective Sgt. Edward Plunkett and Officer William Novak found the front door of the store broken and shortly afterward found Griffin hiding under some plywood in an alley south of the store, Iurato said.
“He apparently feels that in spite of the burglar alarm, he was going through anyway,” Iurato said, adding that several watches from Woolworth’s were recovered.
Under questioning by Lt. Anthony Leggieri and Detective Sgt. Fred Puglisi, Griffin confessed to six other burglaries, including twice breaking into Victor’s Jewelers at 141 Main St. and stealing several watches and jewelry, Iurato said.
Griffin also is charged with the strong-arm robbery of a man on Union Street on Dec. 3 after following the victim home from a bank. Iurato said Griffin punched and pushed the man to the ground before stealing his wallet.
On Nov. 17, Griffin allegedly stole a wallet from another pedestrian in the Union Street neighborhood, prompting a charge of theft from a person, Iurato said.
The other burglaries were at businesses along the south end of Main, Hudson, and State streets, Iurato said, adding that Griffin did not work alone.
Iurato said police believe Griffin and his accomplices were responsible for similar burglaries in Paramus, Hasbrouck Heights, and other communities in the area.

Keywords: HACKENSACK; BURGLARY

CITY PROBES BURGLARY WAVE; SAYS ARMED ROBBER FITS PATTERN

By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Friday, December 28, 1990

The Record (New Jersey) | One Star | NEWS | Page B03

A 28-year-old Hackensack man who last week admitted committing three armed robberies is being investigated in connection with more than 20 burglaries in the city and several more in surrounding communities, city police said Thursday.

A Municipal Court judge Thursday set bail at $25,000 for Michael Dunlap of 179 Union St. on three counts of armed robbery and possession of a crack vial, and released him on his own recognizance.

In one of the robberies to which Dunlap confessed, he entered AAA Home Video store at 29 State St. on Sept. 24, asked about joining the club, and then announced a robbery, said Capt. John Aletta, Hackensack Police investigations chief. Dunlap said he had a gun wrapped in his coat, but the store attendant did not see it, Aletta said.

Dunlap is said to have repeated the pattern at the Arena Diner on Essex Street on Oct. 1 and at the Shell gas station across the street from the diner on Dec. 9. Approximately $300 was taken in all the robberies, Aletta said.

Detective Sgt. Fred Puglisi is investigating other armed robberies fitting the pattern, Aletta said. Hackensack also will share its information with surrounding communities that have reported robberies fitting the pattern, he said.

Robbery victims will be shown a photo lineup, including a photograph of Dunlap, to see if they could identify their assailant, Puglisi said.

Detective Sgt. Michael Mordaga arrested Dunlap on Dec. 20 as he walked along Union Street, near Central Avenue, at about 7 p.m. Aletta said Mordaga recognized Dunlap from descriptions and a composite drawing of the suspect in the armed robberies.

Police said when Mordaga patted Dunlap down before taking him into custody, the detective felt what appeared to be a bullet in Dunlap’s pocket. The object turned out to be a crack vial, Aletta said.