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
ID: 17338740 | Copyright © 1991, The Record (New Jersey)
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