Driving Under the Influence Nelson Melgar-Donis, 30, of Puritan Avenue, Lawrence Township, was arrested about 1:20 a.m. Friday, March 22, and charged with driving under the influence, DUI in a school zone, reckless driving, and failure to maintain a lane after the vehicle he was operating was stopped on Princeton Avenue by Officer Andres Mejia, according to Lawrence Township police spokesman Lt. Mark Ubry. He said Mejia initiated the traffic stop after observing Melgar-Donis’s vehicle abruptly slow while negotiating the Brunswick Circle and then cross over the road’s double-yellow line while …

Driving Under the Influence A one-car crash that knocked out electrical service to homes and businesses in the Franklin Corner Road area for some time during the pre-dawn hours of Friday, March 15, resulted in drunk driving charges being filed against the driver, according to Lawrence Township police spokesman Lt. Mark Ubry. It was shortly before 2:40 a.m. when Officer Ryan Dunn – having, while on patrol, observed that power was out to the traffic lights at the intersection of Route 1 and Franklin Corner Road – began to search the surrounding area for a transformer fire or other problem that …

Drug Offense Nicco Baumann, 18, of Totowa was charged with possession of prescription medication without a prescription, possession of drug paraphernalia and underage possession of alcohol, and his passenger, Robert Gilrain, 18, of Wayne was charged with underage possession of alcohol after the vehicle being driven by Baumann was stopped by police about 9:45 p.m. on Friday, March 8, according to Lawrence Township police spokesman Lt. Mark Ubry. Officer Ryan Dunn initiated the traffic stop after observing Baumann drive through the painted median along Lawrence Road (Route 206) prior to turning…

Lawrence Township police spokesman Lt. Mark Ubry provided the following details of three recent residential burglaries that are under investigation. Anyone with information that could help detectives solve these crimes is asked to call township police at (609) 896-1111. *   *   * Manitee Avenue A Toshiba laptop computer, an Apple iPod, assorted jewelry, cash and other items valued at more than $4,600 was stolen from a home on Manitee Avenue between 8:40 a.m. and 5 p.m. on Thursday, Feb. 28. The burglar gained entry by forcing open a side window, Ubry said, noting that residents called police …

Drug Offense Gabriel Tabor, 22, of Homan Avenue, Ewing Township, and Marquan Wilkins, 23, of Euclid Avenue, Trenton, were each charged with possession of marijuana under 50 grams after the vehicle in which they were traveling was stopped by police on the Trenton Freeway (Route 1) about 1:40 a.m. on Sunday, Feb. 24, according to Lawrence Township police spokesman Lt. Mark Ubry. Sgt. Tim Drew initiated the traffic stop because he observed the vehicle – which was driven by Wilkins – speeding and traveling with an inoperable light, Ubry said. The two were taken into custody after Drew spotted …

Burglary Lawrence Township Police Detective Todd Caruso and Officer Kelly Longo are investigating a burglary in which about a laptop computer, a flat-screen television, a digital camera, assorted coins and other property totaling $1,450 were stolen from a home on Zoar Street, according to township police spokesman Lt. Mark Ubry. No evidence of forced entry was found, he said, and police suspect that the burglar gained entry via an unlocked door while no one was home sometime between 11 p.m. on Monday, Feb. 11, and 7 a.m. on Tuesday, Feb. 12 *   *   * Burglary A resident of Harmony Avenue …

Thefts Police are investigating several vehicle break-ins that occurred in the same area all on Wednesday, Feb. 13. Lawrence Township Police Department spokesman Lt. Mark Ubry provided the following details of the crimes: Between 6 and 7:50 p.m., someone broke a window on the driver’s side of a Nissan Rogue while it was parked outside Gold’s Gym in the 4100 block of Quakerbridge Road; the owner, a Lawrence Township resident, did not believe that anything was stolen. Between 7 and 7:52 p.m., someone broke the front passenger’s side window of a Trenton resident’s 2006 Lexus while the vehicle …

Driving Under the Influence Gregg Melvin, 40, of Ewing Township, was arrested about 2:15 a.m. Sunday, Feb. 3, and charged with driving under the influence, reckless driving, obstructing traffic and operating a vehicle with no insurance, according to Lawrence Township police spokesman Lt. Mark Ubry. He said Officer Steve Simon was on patrol when he came upon Melvin’s vehicle stopped in the right southbound lane of Interstate 95, near Route 206, with its brake lights on. Simon activated his patrol car’s warning lights in an effort to get the driver’s attention. When that failed, Simon exited …

Burglary A 24-year-old resident of an apartment building in the 2600 block of Lawrence Road (Main Street/Route 206) was arrested and taken to the regional crisis center in Trenton after she entered a neighboring apartment, removed all her clothing, and attacked the two residents of that unit, according to Lawrence Township police spokesman Lt. Mark Ubry. The incident occurred shortly before 11:10 p.m. on Saturday, Jan. 26. Ubry said the male victim told police he was playing video games, his apartment door unlocked at the time, when the 24-year-old suspect entered wearing only a robe. The …

Drug Offense Edward Thorpe III, 20, of Christoph Avenue, Trenton, and Kyle Davis, 20, of Delawareview Avenue, Trenton, were arrested and each charged with possession of marijuana under 50 grams after the vehicle in which they were riding as passengers was stopped by police on Cherry Tree Lane at 5:33 p.m. on Monday, Jan. 21, according to Lawrence Township police spokesman Lt. Mark Ubry. The traffic stop was initiated because a random lookup of the vehicle’s license plate number by Officer Ryan Dunn revealed that the driving privileges of the vehicle’s registered owner had been suspended, Ubry…

Drug Offense Noe Rodriguez Velarde, 31, of Gresham, Ore., was arrested about 10 p.m. on Sunday, Jan. 13, and charged with possession of heroin and possession of drug paraphernalia after the vehicle he was driving was stopped by Officer Ryan Dunn on Brunswick Pike (Route 1) near Grovers Mill Road, according to Lawrence Township police spokesman Lt. Mark Ubry. Dunn initiated the traffic stop after noticing that the vehicle Velarde was driving had a non-functioning rear brake light and a computer check of the registration revealed that the driver’s license of the vehicle’s owner was suspended, …

Receiving Stolen Property Davonne Carmichael, 21, of Race Street, Trenton, was arrested about 4:30 p.m. on Thursday, Jan. 3, and charged with receiving stolen property after he was caught driving a stolen car, according to Lawrence Township police spokesman Lt. Mark Ubry. Officer Suzanne Girard was on patrol when she conducted a random registration check of a car traveling in the area of Princeton Avenue and Mulberry Street.  After the check revealed that the vehicle had been reported stolen from Trenton, Girard followed the car as it turned onto Mulberry Street and then onto Stratton Place. …

Driving Under the Influence Gansukh Tumurtogoo, 27, of Western Avenue, Ewing Township, was arrested about 11:40 p.m. on Saturday, Dec. 29, and charged with driving under the influence, DUI in a school zone, reckless driving, motor vehicle theft, resisting arrest and three other offenses after he allegedly crashed his friend’s 1994 Honda Accord into the landscaping in the center of the Brunswick Traffic Circle, according to Lawrence Township police spokesman Lt. Mark Ubry. Tumurtogoo stole his friend’s car from the Lawrence Shopping Center parking lot after the friend put Tumurtogoo in the …

Drug Offense Two Lawrence Township men – Cory Williams, 20, of Mink Court, and Marcin Nedza, 20, of Pilgrim Avenue – were arrested and charged with possession of under 50 grams of marijuana and possession of drug paraphernalia after they were allegedly caught with the prohibited drugs and material in a vehicle parked in Hamnett Park off Ohio Avenue about 9:40 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 18, according to township police spokesman Lt. Mark Ubry. He said Officer Shaun Sexton made the arrests after investigating why the vehicle was in the park after hours. *   *   * Drug Offense A 17-year-old Lawrence …

Fraud A Lawrence Township woman was recently bilked out of $1,675 by a con artist working from overseas, according to township police spokesman Lt. Mark Ubry. It was on Tuesday, Dec. 11, that the 44-year-old woman and her husband contacted police to report the crime. The woman told police she had received a phone call from an “Arab-speaking male” who advised her that she had won a $50,000 prize but that, in order to collect the jackpot, she first needed to send a payment of $475 to an address in the city of Dubai in the United Arab Emirates, according to Ubry. After the woman wired the money …

Investigation Anyone lose his or her mind recently? No, seriously – have you misplaced your brain? If so, you can relax. It has been found. However, authorities would like an explanation as to how the lump of gray matter came to be sitting in the grass outside a Lawrence Township convenience store last week. The unusual – if not gruesome – discovery of a brain, resting all by itself amid the grass, was made last Tuesday afternoon, Dec. 4, by a landscaper working outside the Quick Chek off Brunswick Circle Extension, according to Detective Sgt. Joseph Amodio, a township police spokesman. A …

False Public Alarm Vadzim Makarski, 29, of Town Court South, Lawrence Township, was arrested about 11:15 p.m. on Thanksgiving, Nov. 22, and charged with causing false public alarm after he allegedly called 911 and reported that his kitchen was on fire, according to Lawrence Township police spokesman Lt. Mark Ubry. He said police and firefighters arrived to find no fire and that Makarski was instead having a dispute with family members. *   *   * Attempted Burglary Detective James Smith and Officer Mark Harmon are investigating a possible attempted burglary at a residence on Temple Terrace, …

A rash of burglaries and vehicle break-ins during which more than $34,000 worth of assorted tools were stolen is currently under investigation by Lawrence Township detectives, police department spokesman Lt. Mark Ubry confirmed. The investigation began at 11:07 a.m. Thursday, Nov. 15, when township police received a call from a Michigan man who reported that sometime between 2 and 6 a.m. that morning someone forced their way into a locked tool box in his pickup truck in the parking lot of the Comfort Inn and stole more than $5,000 worth of assorted tools, Ubry said, explaining that the man …

Driving Under the Influence Rafael A. Rodriguez, 32, of Colonial Lake Drive, Lawrence Township, was charged with driving under the influence, reckless driving, assault by auto and seven other offenses after the vehicle he was driving slammed into the rear of a state Department of Transportation pickup truck along the southbound side of Route 1 (Brunswick Pike) about 1:10 a.m. on Thursday, Nov. 8, according to Lawrence Township police spokesman Lt. Mark Ubry. It was snowing at the time and the NJ DOT pickup, with its amber warning lights on, was escorting state plow trucks that were clearing …

  Burglary At 8:24 a.m. on Wednesday, Oct. 31, Lawrence Township police were called to the state Motor Vehicle Commission’s Bakers Basin facility in the 3200 block of Route 1 (Brunswick Pike) to investigate the theft of more than $4,200 worth of tools and equipment from an office trailer and two cargo containers belonging to Dandrea Construction, the contractor responsible for building the MVC’s  new office on the site, according to police department spokesman Lt. Mark Ubry. He said someone cut the locks to gain entry to the trailer and containers. The crime is believed to have taken place …