Several Burglary Suspects Arrested by Lawrence Police

Update, Feb. 15: ""

Lawrence Township police have, they believe, solved several burglaries and have arrested four men in connection with those crimes, police department spokesman Lt. Charles Edgar revealed Thursday afternoon (Feb. 9).

Edgar said two men were arrested as suspects in two burglaries and an attempted burglary from September; another man was arrested as a suspect in burglaries and thefts at four businesses in January; and yet another man who was taken into custody on heroin possession charges will soon be charged with at least one other recent burglary.

An 18-year-old Hamilton Township man whose name was withheld because he was 17 – and legally a juvenile – at the time of the crimes and Rufus Thompson, 23, of Mechanics Avenue, Trenton, were each charged on Tuesday (Feb. 7) with two counts of burglary, two counts of theft and one count of attempted burglary, Edgar said.

He said the two men are suspected of breaking into , burglarizing the , and trying – unsuccessfully – to break into the .

Following the Sunoco break-in, township police released to the local media an image – taken by a surveillance camera – showing one of the alleged burglars holding a flashlight inside the gas station. That suspect – unofficially referred to as the “blue man” because of the bluish tint given to the picture by a slight camera malfunction – is believed by authorities to be the 18-year-old Hamilton Township man.

Evidence collected at the crime scenes and tireless work by Detective James Smith and other members of the police department were responsible for identifying the two men as suspects in the three crimes, Edgar said.

“We’ve been working these cases nonstop since they occurred,” he said.

When charged with the Lawrence Township crimes, the 18-year-old was already in custody at a state correctional facility in connection with unrelated crimes from another town, Edgar noted.      

Also recently, according to Edgar, Lawrence Township Detective Robert Potter arrested Philip Gassler, a 46-year-old resident of the 400 block of Home Avenue in Trenton, on multiple burglary and theft charges for allegedly .

Gassler – a former employee of two of the businesses – was identified as a suspect in the crimes as a direct result of Potter’s investigation, Edgar said.

The fourth suspect arrested by Lawrence Township police was identified by Edgar as 28-year-old Mark Strycharz of the 100 block of Michigan Avenue in Lawrence.

Lt. Mark Ubry initially spotted Strycharz walking along Lawrence Road (Route 206), near Millerick Avenue, with a bicycle and carrying a black bag Wednesday afternoon (Feb. 8). Because Strycharz matched in many ways , police stopped Strycharz for questioning in the area of Roxboro Road and Fieldboro Drive, according to Edgar.

During the course of that interview, he said, police discovered that Strycharz was allegedly in possession of a quantity of heroin and had a pry bar tool in his bag. Strycharz was arrested at that time on drug charges, he said.

Continuing their investigation, police obtained a search warrant for Strycharz’s home, Edgar said. Upon executing that search warrant, police found additional drugs, he said.

Also found in the house, he said, was evidence that police believe links Strycharz to at least one recent burglary. He said Strycharz, as of Thursday, had been charged with receiving stolen property, in addition to the drug possession charges. Burglary charges against Strycharz were pending, he said.

Edgar said police are still investigating if any other recent crimes in the township might have been committed by any of the four suspects.

As always, Edgar encouraged anyone with information about any criminal activity in the township to call Lawrence Township police at (609) 896-1111.