Police Blotter: Lawrence Man Arrested for Allegedly Stealing $28,000 in Jewelry from His Grandparents

Fast-acting Lawrence Township police officers recently arrested two township teenagers on burglary and theft charges after an alert Drift Avenue resident called 911 to report seeing two suspicious individuals lurking around his neighbors’ driveways. And in another unrelated case recently, police charged two suspects in connection with the theft of more than $28,000 worth of jewelry from a Brandon Road home.

Lt. Charles Edgar, a township police spokesman, said it was 1:19 a.m. on Wednesday, Feb. 9, when police were called to Drift Avenue by a resident who, while happening to glance out a window, saw two young men “going in and out” of driveways along the street.

Officers Shawn Sudol, Chris DiMeglio and Joseph Radlinski and Sgt. Brian Caloiaro responded to Drift Avenue and located two suspects. While questioning the pair, police discovered that one of them was in possession of a GPS unit that had allegedly been stolen from an unlocked car parked in a driveway nearby, according to Edgar.

The suspects – a 17-year-old from Winthrop Road and a 17-year-old from Johnson Avenue – were arrested and charged with burglary and theft, Edgar said. He was unable to release their names because they are juveniles.

In the other case, an elderly couple from Brandon Road called 911 at 8:24 a.m. on Wednesday, Feb. 9, to report they had just discovered that more than $28,000 worth of jewelry had been stolen from their home, Edgar said.

Police interviewed the 78-year-old homeowner and wife 71-year-old wife. The husband related that he realized something was wrong when he could not find a particular diamond ring. “He knows exactly where he keeps it when it’s not on his finger,” Edgar explained.

The couple called police after they searched their home and discovered that several other pieces of jewelry were missing as well, he said.

While he could not provide specific details about the crime because the investigation is continuing, Edgar said Officers Richard Laird III and Robert Loveless and Detective Todd Caruso were able to identify the elderly couple’s grandson and his girlfriend as suspects.

The grandson, 25, and his girlfriend, 24, of Pennington Borough, had been living in the elderly couple’s home recently, Edgar said. The two suspects, whose names were withheld to protect the identity of the elderly crime victims, were both arrested and charged with theft, he said.

Edgar said police are still working to determine what became of the stolen jewelry.

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Drug Arrests 

A routine traffic stop resulted in the arrest of a man on drug charges Wednesday, Feb. 9. The vehicle being driven by Kevin Higgenbotham, 42, of Edgewood Avenue, Trenton, was stopped by Officer Andres Mejia about 10:15 a.m. after Mejia saw Higgenbotham allegedly fail to yield to oncoming traffic on Princeton Avenue, according to Edgar.

Mejia discovered that the number displayed on the vehicle’s license plates was not the number listed on the vehicle’s registration, Edgar said. He said further investigation by Mejia and Officer Hector Nieves revealed a quantity of suspected marijuana and crack cocaine in the vehicle. Higgenbotham was arrested and charged with multiple drug possession offenses and motor vehicle violations, Edgar said.

About 11:15 p.m. on Wednesday, Feb. 9, Officer Thomas Maple arrested a Rider University student, 18-year-old Ashley Isselin of Bernardsville, and charged her with possession of suspected marijuana and possession of drug paraphernalia, Edgar said.

He said police were called to Isselin’s room in the Conover residence hall on the Rider campus in the 2000 block of Lawrence Road (Route 206) after a resident advisor smelled an odor of what she believed was marijuana coming from the room. The advisor alerted campus security, who in turn allegedly found a quantity of marijuana and a water bong in the room, Edgar said.

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Theft

Edgar said police are investigating the thefts of more than $600 in cash from the purses of two custodial workers at Quaker Bridge Mall. The money was stolen in small amounts over the course of the last six months or so, he said.

During the times the money was taken the women’s purses were in the mall’s maintenance shop, which was often left unlocked, Edgar said, noting that some tools belonging to the mall were also reportedly stolen. He said mall management had been investigating the thefts on its own until police were notified of the crimes about 7:15 p.m. on Wednesday, Feb. 9.

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Shoplifting

Two teenage girls from Trenton were charged with shoplifting after they were allegedly caught trying to leave the Lord & Taylor department store at Quaker Bridge Mall with merchandise they had not paid for about 6:35 p.m. on Tuesday, Feb. 8. Edgar said the younger girl, 14, allegedly had $188 worth of jewelry concealed on her person, while her 15-year-old companion allegedly was in possession of $90 worth of jewelry. 

Anyone with information about any of the above crimes is asked to call Lawrence Township police at (609) 896-1111.

A copy of Lawrence Township's police dispatch log for Tuesday, Feb. 8, through Wednesday, Feb. 9, 2011, can be downloaded from the PDF box above. This log lists all significant calls for service and incidents for which officers filed a written report. Routine administrative assignments are omitted. Some data has been redacted to protect the identity of crime victims.)