InJersey

WOODBRIDGE, NJ –A township man returned Wednesday to find his car had been stolen from a church parking lot on Oak Tree Road, police said. The 29-year-old victim told police he parked his 2010 BMW 535 outside the First Presbyterian Church at noon Jan. 20. It was missing when he returned about 2 p.m. Wednesday. The [...]

WOODBRIDGE, NJ –Investigators arrested a township man earlier this month after seeing 3 pounds of marijuana in “plain view” on his passenger’s seat during a traffic stop, officials said. Phuoc Pham , 36, is charged with possession of marijuana and possession with intent to distribute. Officers spotted the marijuana on the passenger’s seat of Pham’s Toyota 4Runner during [...]

WOODBRIDGE, NJ — A crew of burglars trashed an Avenel liquor store early Tuesday before taking cigarettes and about $500 in cash, police said. The burglary at Avwood Bar Liquor Mart, 971 Rahway Ave., was discovered around 6:45 a.m. by a neighboring business owner, who found the front glass door shattered and called police. Surveillance video [...]

EAST BRUNSWICK — Investigators are still trying to determine the cause of a fire Wednesday morning that damaged a Route 18 bicycle shop and its two neighboring stores, officials said. Firefighters responded just before 6:50 a.m. to an alarm at Planet Bike, 1177 Route 18 South, police said. Callers reported seeing flames come through the roof; [...]

EAST BRUNSWICK – Police are searching for a robber who forced a woman into his car in East Brunswick last week and threatened to shoot her before fleeing with cash, officials said Tuesday. The 21-year-old victim told police she was taking a bus from Perth Amboy to East Brunswick, arriving about 5:15 p.m. Thursday at Old [...]

WOODBRIDGE, NJ — Two people were killed Tuesday afternoon in a crash near Exit 11 of the New Jersey in Woodbridge, authorities said. The collision, which involved a car and a tractor-trailer, occurred about 12:40 p.m. in the southbound truck lanes, New Jersey State Police Capt. Frank Davis said. An ongoing investigation has caused authorities to [...]

WOODBRIDGE, NJ — A Woodbridge man faces up to 25 years in prison after he was convicted of sexually assaulting a minor in Union County, authorities said Thursday. Jose Tavera , 39, of the township’s Sewaren section was found guilty after a trial in state Superior Court, Elizabeth, Union County Prosecutor Theodore Romankow said. The jury found him [...]

UPDATE: Stephen Competello died Jan 21. WOODBRIDGE, NJ — A Woodbridge man remained in critical condition Thursday, three days after he was injured in a fire at his home in Port Reading on the Carteret border, authorities said. Stephen Competello , 56, was left unresponsive and hospitalized after the blaze on Willow Street, which is considered accidental in nature, [...]

WOODBRIDGE, NJ — A gunman stopped a woman who was walking to work through Menlo Park Terrace on Monday and threatened to shoot her before fleeing with her purse, police said. The victim, 37, told police she was walking to White Castle along Menlo Avenue at 6:30 a.m. when a red sedan traveled past her, turned around [...]

WOODBRIDGE, NJ — A Newark man has been charged with slashing a convenience store clerk during a robbery in the Menlo Park Terrace section of Woodbridge last week, police said. Edgardo Melendez , 30, was arrested Friday night and is a suspect in four other recent robberies in the area, Woodbridge police Capt. Roy Hoppock said. He is charged [...]

WOODBRIDGE, NJ — Two Colonia residents returned home last Sunday to find an unknown amount of jewelry missing, police said. The victims, ages 31 and 28, arrived at the Chain O’ Hills Road home at 6:30 p.m. to find the footprints leading to a front door that had been kicked open, they told police. They found that [...]

EAST BRUNSWICK — An Ocean County man died early Friday after he was injured in a two-vehicle crash on Route 18 North in East Brunswick, police said. Jeffrey Dembinski, 60, of Whiting suffered an apparent chest injury when his 2007 Hyundai Elantra rear-ended a 1999 Dodge Durango at 12:25 a.m. at the Arthur Street intersection, [...]

WOODBRIDGE, NJ — A surveillance camera at a Route 1 office building was recording Friday afternoon when a thief stole a Teaneck man’s car from the parking lot, police said. Another car of the same model and year was reported stolen that day. The victim, 30, told police he parked and locked his 2002 Acura RSX [...]

WOODBRIDGE, NJ — A bandit brandishing a large knife made off with hundreds of dollars in cash Saturday after robbing a gas station in the township’s Fords section, police said. The attendant at the Raceway station at 1 Lafayette Road near Ford Avenue told police the man entered the convenience store around 5:20 p.m. and asked [...]

EAST BRUNSWICK — A worker who fell 30 feet at an East Brunswick construction site on Tuesday died from his injuries hours after the accident, police said Thursday. Police on Thursday also identified the worker as Michael Testa, 40, of Brick. Testa was injured around 1:10 p.m. Tuesday when he fell from the roof of a [...]

WOODBRIDGE, NJ — A clerk was injured Tuesday when he tried to fight off an armed robber at a convenience store in the Menlo Park Terrace section of Woodbridge, police said. The victim at the Stop N Go store, 88 West Kelly St., told police the man entered the shop about 5:40 p.m., grabbed a few items and [...]

Most school districts across Middlesex County were closed Wednesday as cleanup continued for a winter storm that dropped at least 7 inches of snow on the area. Some districts, including Carteret, South Brunswick and Piscataway, announced the closings as early as Tuesday night when the snow had just begun to fall. The snow continued steadily [...]

EAST BRUNSWICK — A construction worker was in serious condition on Tuesday after falling 30 feet from atop an unfinished building on Route 18 in East Brunswick, police said. Officials rushed to the Summerhill Square retail development near Arthur Street just before 1:10 p.m. after the worker, a 40-year-old Brick man, fell from the roof, Sgt. [...]

WOODBRIDGE, N.J. — A bandit brandishing a large knife made off with hundreds of dollars in cash Saturday after robbing a Fords gas station, police said. The attendant at the Raceway station at 1 Lafayette Road near Ford Avenue told police the man entered the convenience store around 5:20 p.m. and asked for a gas can. [...]

WOODBRIDGE, N.J. — Two Newark men face charges after breaking into a FedEx office in Avenel and leading police on a chase into Rahway last weekend, officials said. Haamid Bashir Stroughn , 18, and Omari A. Jemmott , 20, are each charged with burglary, theft, eluding and obstruction. Officers responded at 3:20 a.m. Dec. 19 to a burglar alarm at [...]