Assaults and robberies jumped significantly in North Jersey in 1989, according to the Uniform Crime Report for that year, recently released by state police.
Passaic County Prosecutor Ronald Fava said that much of the increase is attributable to drug addiction.
By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Sunday, March 8, 1992
The Record (New Jersey) | All Editions | NEWS | A07
A 25-year-old man who was stranded when his car broke down Saturday fought off an attacker who reluctantly gave him a ride, then drove him to a secluded spot, put a hunting knife to his throat, and demanded his money, police said.
Although both men are New Milford residents, chance threw them together for the first time Saturday, Teaneck Detective Dean Kazinci said.
After his late-model car broke down on New Milford Avenue in Bergenfield shortly before 4 a.m., the victim walked to Teaneck Road and crossed paths with David Wohllenben.
Wohllenben, 20, at first refused to give the victim a ride but he “circled the block, then came back and offered to give him a ride,” Kazinci said.
Wohllenben allegedly drove to the rear of Jobber Auto Parts at 1555 Teaneck Road. He opened the passenger door, produced a hunting knife that he put to the victim’s throat, and demanded his money, Kazinci said.
The victim used his right hand to fend off knife, sustaining a slight cut in the palm, police said. The victim then fled into a back yard and onto Teaneck Road, where he hailed Teaneck Police Officer Dennis Kleiber.
When Bergenfield Police Officer John Casper stopped Wohllenben about 4:20 a.m. at West Main Street and Franklin Avenue, he saw the hunting knife under the driver’s seat, Kazinci said.
After the victim identified Wohllenben as the attacker, Bergenfield police charged him with unlawful possession of a weapon and possession of a small amount of marijuana and drug paraphernalia, and bail was set at $2,500. Teaneck police charged him with armed robbery, possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose, and aggravated assault, Kazinci said.
Wohllenben was remanded to the Bergen County Jail on $75,000 bail.
Notes: Bergen page
ID: 17370883 | Copyright © 1992, The Record (New Jersey)
By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Saturday, February 1, 1992
The Record (New Jersey) | Two Star B | NEWS | Page A03
A robbery suspect who had leveled a gun at a police officer dropped his weapon after a second officer, who came up behind the suspect, ordered him to freeze, police said.
The suspect, Thomas O’Kean, had just walked out of a Roy Rogers restaurant on Route 46. He allegedly had a bag of money in his left hand and a gun in his right when he was confronted by Officer Donald Anzalone, said Police Chief Donald Fleming.
Anzalone and Officer Craig Hartless had responded to a silent alarm at the restaurant about 11:25 p.m. Thursday, then waited for the suspect to come outside, because they did not want him to take the five restaurant employees hostage, Anzalone said.
O’Kean allegedly waited for the last customer to leave before accosting the manager, who tripped a silent alarm. After taking money from a safe, a cash-drop box, and a register, the suspect emerged from a side door into the parking lot, where Anzalone, who was behind cover, ordered him to freeze and drop his gun.
Anzalone said O’Kean instead began to slowly raise his weapon, which turned out to be a pellet gun, before Hartless also called on him to freeze.
“He had the gun leveled at me,” Anzalone said. “I don’t know why I didn’t shoot him. I think we both handled it pretty well. The outcome is what we like to see.”
O’Kean, who gave a Lodi address that police could not confirm, was charged with the armed robbery of about $1,800 from the restaurant. He was being held without bail in the Bergen County Jail.
ID: 17367597 | Copyright © 1992, The Record (New Jersey)
Byline: By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Friday, January 24, 1992
The Record (New Jersey) | 5 Star | NEWS | Page B01
A convicted killer who escaped from a Connecticut prison and was recaptured in Paramus over the weekend was charged Thursday with two armed robberies in Rutherford and Montvale, authorities said.
Police linked Frank Vandever to the Jan. 7 robberies of a Rutherford jewelry store and a Montvale 7 Eleven after Vandever was captured at Garden State Plaza on Saturday, Bergen County Prosecutor John J. Fahy said.
Ronald Rutan, who also escaped from the Connecticut prison and was recaptured last week, was also charged Thursday in the holdups, Fahy said.
Vandever and Rutan are also suspects in the robbery of a 7 Eleven in Waldwick on Jan. 9, the prosecutor said.
Connecticut authorities on Thursday charged Vandever, 37, and Rutan, 34, with breaking out of the Somers Correctional Center on New Year’s Eve, and with kidnapping a couple and stealing their truck at knifepoint the day after the escape.
The two inmates broke out of prison by cutting through the bars of a window near the kitchen and then through two perimeter fences, authorities said. A fence alarm failed to sound.
Vandever, a former stockbroker serving a 40-year term for murdering a client, and Rutan, a convicted burglar, then led authorities in Connecticut, New York, and New Jersey on a manhunt. Rutan was captured in Spring Valley, N.Y., on Jan. 15.
Rutherford Police Chief Edward P. Caughey said that at about 5 p.m. on Jan. 6 Rutan went alone into Crosby Jewelers at 50 Park Ave. and asked a clerk if he could look at diamonds because he was shopping for an engagement ring.
Rutan returned with Vandever about the same time the next day. Vandever held a knife on the store clerk and Rutan brandished a gun that was later determined to be a toy, Caughey said.
Despite a warning from Rutan when he announced the robbery, however, the store manager pressed a silent alarm.
“When he pulled the alarm, they both turned around and fled,” Caughey said.
Neither victim was injured, and nothing was taken from the store.
About 11:46 p.m. the same night, Rutan held a 10-inch knife to the abdomen of a 7 Eleven clerk in Montvale, said borough Police Chief Joseph Marigliani. After Rutan left with about $300, Vandever, who allegedly was in the store pretending to be a customer, paid for a newspaper and also left.
The clerk then called police.
Fahy said he intended to prosecute the case after the two men are dealt with by Connecticut authorities.
ID: 17366857 | Copyright © 1992, The Record (New Jersey)
By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Monday, January 20, 1992
The Record (New Jersey) | All Editions | NEWS | Page C18
A 31-year-old Cliffside Park woman who was held up at gunpoint has identified two Newark men in a police photo lineup as the robbers, police said.
Township police charged Kenneth Snead, 24, with armed robbery and unlawful possession of a weapon on Friday, and are looking for Melvin Crooks, 26, on the same charges, said Lt. Timothy Kelly, township police spokesman.
An employee of the McDonald’s restaurant at 2126 Tonnelle Ave., which was robbed last Monday night, also identified Snead as the gunman who, with another man, came to the drive-up window and demanded money, Kelly said.
The Cliffside Park woman was walking on Eighth Street on Wednesday when she was chased by the robbers, struck on the back of the head, and knocked to the ground before they drove away with her pocketbook.
The woman wrote down the license plate number of the assailants car. Snead and Crooks were later arrested by Newark police. The car, which had been stolen earlier Wednesday, was recovered with the woman’s purse and a cash till from the Roy Rogers restaurant at 1440 Tonnelle Ave. The restaurant was held up about 15 minutes after the woman was attacked, police said.
Newark police had Snead, who they were holding on an outstanding warrant, in custody when North Bergen police came calling later Thursday, Kelly said. Newark police had released Crooks on bail.
ID: 17366460 | Copyright © 1992, The Record (New Jersey)
By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Friday, January 17, 1992
The Record (New Jersey) | 5 Star | NEWS | Page B08
Two men being held by Newark police are suspects in two robberies in North Bergen, including one in which a 31-year-old Cliffside Park woman was struck and knocked to the ground, police said.
The woman was walking on Eighth Street, just east of Grand Avenue, about 7:15 p.m. Wednesday when a man stepped out of a car and demanded her pocketbook, said Lt. Timothy Kelly, township police spokesman.
“She started to run, and he struck her on the back of the head with an object,” Kelly said. “She fell, then she gave up the pocketbook.”
The woman wrote down the New York license plate number of the white, two-door 1982 Chevrolet Camaro as it sped away with two men in it. She was treated at Meadowlands Hospital Medical Center for a head wound and released, a hospital spokesman said.
About 15 minutes later, the same car pulled up to the drive-up window at the Roy Rogers restaurant at 1440 Tonnelle Ave., about a quarter-mile from where the woman was robbed, Kelly said.
A restaurant employee told police he was confronted at the window by a man holding a gun and demanding money. The man appeared nervous and said, “Give me everything,” the employee told police. He handed over a tray with an undisclosed amount of money in it, Kelly said, and the men drove off.
About 8:30 p.m., in Newark’s Weequahic Park, police who heard a broadcast from North Bergen seized the car and arrested Melvin Crooks, 26, and Kenneth Snead, 24, both of Newark.
They were charged with being in possession of a stolen car, which had been taken in Newark early Wednesday evening, said Sgt. Alonzo Evans, Newark police spokesman.
The victims of the North Bergen robberies will be shown a photo lineup that includes the suspects, Kelly said.
Police are also investigating the men in connection with Monday’s robbery of the McDonald’s restaurant at 2126 Tonnelle Ave., he added. As in the Roy Rogers holdup, two men drove to the restaurant’s drive-up window and, with one of them brandishing a gun, demanded money. They escaped with an undetermined amount of cash.
ID: 17366272 | Copyright © 1992, The Record (New Jersey)
By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Wednesday, January 15, 1992
The Record (New Jersey) | 5 Star | NEWS | Page B03
Two men were charged Tuesday with attempted robbery and assaulting a security guard who walked by as they were trying to steal a truck, police said.
Abundio Cortes, 27, of Brooklyn and Francisco Contreras, 32, of 87 Park Place, Passaic, were arrested at Tonnelle Avenue and 76th Street, about 1 1/2 miles from 4401 Dell Ave., an office building where the men tried to steal the truck, said Lt. Timothy Kelly.
Security guard Guiseppe Occhano, 22, of Union City noticed a broken window on the truck while talking to the men, whom he had seen walking from the side of the building about 1:30 a.m. The men attacked Occhano and a friend who was with him, Jose Zenon, 21, of Union City, with a metal pipe, baseball bat, and a crutch, Kelly said.
They defended themselves, hitting one man and breaking his arm and giving the other a deep cut on the mouth, Kelly said.
Cortes and Contreras then fled in a black Chevrolet Trans Am, and Occhano called police. They were arrested a few minutes later by Patrolman Robert Scudieri. Occhano was taken to the scene and identified the two men as his attackers, Kelly said.
In an unrelated incident, two men robbed the McDonald’s restaurant at 2126 Tonnelle Ave. at 6:45 p.m. Monday, Kelly said.
The two drove to the drive-up window, and one of them brandished a gun and demanded money. They escaped with an undetermined amount of cash, Kelly said.
ID: 17365983 | Copyright © 1992, The Record (New Jersey)
By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Sunday, January 12, 1992
The Record (New Jersey) | All Editions | NEWS | Page A07
After a gunman demanded money from a teller at the Lemoine Avenue branch of First Fidelity Bank on Monday and calmly walked out with $935, he was seen driving off in style in a white 1992 Ford Taurus.
Police say the robber was Renard Mercer of Queens and that his getaway car was rented. Mercer was in the lockup at the Queens Borough Central Booking on Friday when Fort Lee detectives caught up with him.
Had he returned the car to Budget Rent-A-Car at La Guardia Airport where he rented it when he was supposed to, Mercer might still be free. As it was, the eyewitness information led detectives first to the rental company, then to the lockup, where Mercer was cooling his heels for failing to return the car, Fort Lee Police Chief John Orso said Saturday.
Mercer, 28, had been arrested in Queens about 5:30 p.m. Thursday by the 115th Precinct Anti-Crime Squad. He is awaiting extradition to Fort Lee to face charges of armed robbery and unlawful possession of a weapon.
Walking unobtrusively past several customers, then showing a handgun to the teller, Mercer demanded money and walked back out just as quietly as he came in, Orso said. The bank’s camera got a clear photograph of Mercer, the chief said.
The bank robbery went unnoticed until the alarm sounded, but by that time, the robber had already left.
Using the information from the eyewitness, whom police declined to identify, the Fort Lee police followed the trail to Mercer, Orso said.
He said that bank robberies are not easy to solve, and praised his officers tenacity in tracking Mercer.
Notes: Bergen page
ID: 17365797 | Copyright © 1992, The Record (New Jersey)
By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Sunday, January 5, 1992
The Record (New Jersey) | All Editions | NEWS | Page A03
There was no smooth getaway for two Bronx men Saturday afternoon when they encountered a jeweler who chased them after the pair held up his store at gunpoint, Police Chief William Luciano said.
Officer Emma Jackson was patrolling the business district about 3 p.m. when she saw the owner of Goldfinger Jewelry Store running after two men on West Palisade Avenue.
“They just robbed my store, at gunpoint,” said the owner, whom police declined to identify. Jackson radioed headquarters for backup and followed the men in her patrol car.
Eight patrol cars raced to the area and chased the pair through McKay Park, into a nearby brook, and through back yards on Elmore Avenue, where police arrested them, Luciano said.
James Cornick and Lamonte Hampton were being held in the Englewood Police Department lockup Saturday night, awaiting a bail hearing, he said.
They were charged with armed robbery and illegal possession of handguns for unlawful purpose.
“You know the old saying: `You can run but you can’t hide’?” a jubilant Luciano asked later. “Too many blue uniforms, too many cops for them to get away. ”
For Jackson, a 16-year veteran of the department, it was the second chase in about two weeks. A robbery victim stopped Jackson’s car as she drove past a bar on West Street and, gesturing because he could not speak English, told her to follow a car occupied by four men he claimed had just robbed him.
The suspects abandoned the car and escaped on foot after crashing into Jackson’s patrol car at a traffic light.
Saturday’s suspects were not so lucky, Luciano said. Patrolman Timothy Torell chased Cornick, who was seen coming out of the window of a home on Elmore Avenue, in the direction of Lt. James Crowley, who arrested him.
Patrolman Joseph Archer saw Hampton about 100 feet down the street, walking at a leisurely pace, Luciano said. The store owner identified him later as one of the men who came into his store and robbed him and his wife, the chief said.
ID: 17365167 | Copyright © 1992, The Record (New Jersey)
By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Wednesday, November 27, 1991
The Record (New Jersey) | 2 Star | NEWS | Page B01
A New York City gang that preys mainly on Hispanic business owners may be responsible for four robberies in Bergen County in which the victims sometimes were followed home from their firms in the city, authorities say.
In two incidents in Englewood and two in Teaneck, residents who own businesses in New York or their family members were robbed in their homes.
The robbers have been armed in three incidents, and the victims, who were not hurt, were Hispanic, police said. In the fourth attack, the victim was beaten in the basement of his home. It could not be determined whether he was Hispanic.
Teaneck police Detective Tom Sikorsky said Tuesday that there is a strong possibility that the attackers belong to a gang wanted by New York City police for about 100 robberies in the past year.
Township police developed the link when they talked to officers from the Bronx robbery task force about descriptions of suspects and the New York license plates on a brown Dodge used in a robbery on Darien Terrace, Sikorsky said.
“These men will not hesitate to use violence,” he said. “You have nothing to gain by resisting these guys. I will say just go along with the robbery.”
About 12:30 p.m. on Nov. 13, two men knocked on the door of the Darien Terrace home. When a woman baby-sitting her 10-month-old grandson peeked through the door, a man asked to be let in, saying he was a police officer. Three men entered and ransacked the home, taking jewelry, cash, and a videocassette recorder, Sikorsky said.
They were seen getting into a four-door, brown Dodge with New York license plates.
About a month before, three men identifying themselves as police officers to the owner’s mother entered a Cooper Avenue home and ransacked it. Sikorsky said police are developing an inventory of items stolen in the robbery.
Englewood police Detective Capt. C. Kenneth Tinsley said his department is following several leads, including the possibility that the victims were followed from New York.
About 12:45 a.m. on Nov. 8, a 63-year-old Englewood resident who worked in the city was beaten and robbed in the basement of his Windsor Road home and was hospitalized. Two gold rings and a brown briefcase were taken.
In September, three armed, masked men entered a Kenwood Road home whose owner worked in New York. They tied up the maid and the son of the homeowner, who was not present. They took $400, a videocassette recorder, and jewelry, but left without a safe that they ransacked the home looking for.
Police Detective Hector Beauchamp in the Bronx said descriptions and a composite drawing of a suspect in the Nov. 8 Englewood robbery fit a member of a gang from the Dominican Republic that has robbed several city business owners.
New York police have photographs of eight men who allegedly belong to one or more gangs of Dominicans believed responsible for the robberies, Beauchamp said.
The robbers, who are based in the Bronx and the Washington Heights section of Manhattan, also have followed victims to New Rochelle, N.Y., and Greenwich, Conn., where two weeks ago they pistol-whipped a money broker and stole more than $80,000, Beauchamp said.
Anyone with information is asked to call police. In Teaneck, call the detectives bureau at 837-2565 or Crimestoppers at 833-4222. To reach Englewood police, call 568-2700.
New York police have set up a 24-hour hot line at -(212) 822-5474.
ID: 17362110 | Copyright © 1991, The Record (New Jersey)