Clifton

By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Sunday, February 17, 1991

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

Police departments are on the lookout for two or more armed men following a series of gas station holdups that authorities believe may be related.
Over the last week, police reported six similar armed robberies in Clifton, Passaic, Wallington, and Rutherford. Most were at service stations on highways, and all but one were committed by a single gunman confronting a lone attendant.
“We’re coordinating with those departments and alerting other departments in the area with gas stations on highways,” said Detective Sgt. William De Vos of Clifton, where three holdups occurred on consecutive days last week.
The latest robbery was at a Getty station in Rutherford on Thursday evening. It was the only one in which a shot was fired, police said.
A 37-year-old attendant was sitting behind a desk at the Getty station about 8:30 p.m. when a man came into the office, asked for change of a dollar, and then produced a gun and announced a robbery, said Rutherford police Detective Lt. Steven Nienstedt.
The gunman took about $300 from the attendant and pushed him into a boiler room next to the office, Nienstedt said. A second man joined the gunman, rifled through the desk, and took more money. They fled on foot, police said.
Before leaving, the gunman shot at the attendant but struck the door, Nienstedt said.
Police said the method in that robbery resembled the other five under investigation.

Keywords: ROBBERY; GARAGE; CLIFTON; PASSAIC; WALLINGTON; RUTHERFORD

By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Sunday, November 18, 1990

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

A dispute between a Bloomfield coach and a Clifton football player boiled over Saturday into a melee between players at a game between the freshman teams from the two communities high schools, according to witnesses.

Details of what occurred at the Clifton High School stadium were sketchy, but witnesses said the players scuffled after the traditional postgame handshake.

Pete Colesano, a Clifton Board of Education member who attended the game, said the melee lasted about 15 minutes and that police were called to help restore order. Colesano said a coach for the Bloomfield team attempted to assault a Clifton player and the scuffle followed.

Chet Parlavecchio, varsity coach at Bloomfield High, said there had been an “incident,” but denied that the Bloomfield coach tried to assault a Clifton player.

Parlavecchio, who was not at the game, refused to identify the coach allegedly involved, but said the coach was consulting a referee, not intending to assault a player, when he left his bench.

“If a coach of mine went after their player, there is no excuse for that and he would be dismissed right away,” Parlavecchio said. “We were on their 10-yard line, ready to score. It was a good football game. They are undefeated and we were ready to pull an upset and all this happened.”

Gerald Robinson, 16, the Clifton player who reportedly was the target of the Bloomfield coach’s anger, traced the dispute to a play late in the fourth quarter.

Robinson said that after the game, players were beginning to shake hands when the Bloomfield coach started running after him. “One of my teammates said, `Gerald, look out. I turned around,” Robinson said. “There was a big riot on the field. Everybody was fighting.”

Robinson was uninjured, but Bobby Capo, 14, a teammate who intervened, was struck on the helmet by the Bloomfield coach, according to Capo’s father, Kenneth.

Clifton High School Principal Robert Mooney and police Sgt. John Zipf both described the incident as minor. There were no serious injuries and no one was arrested.

Clifton won the game, 26-14. The varsities of the two schools are scheduled to play in Clifton on Thanksgiving Day.

Tag: Clifton

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