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A 14-year-old boy was in custody after one of the victims told Lodi police that he was walking on Hancock Street last night when someone hit him in the back of the head, knocking him down.
When he turned, the 60-year-old man said, the would-be robber punched him in the face, Lt. Robert Salerno told CLIFFVIEW PILOT.
Another bandit then tried rifling through his pockets, the man said, but he fought them off and chased them a short distance before they took off.
Lodi police soon after grabbed the teen, who was issued a delinquency complaint for robbery and taken to the Bergen County Juvenile Detention Facility in Teterboro, Salerno said.
The victim sustained minor injuries, the lieutenant said.
Less than 24 hours earlier, Garfield police recieved a report from a 51-year-old man who said he was accosted on Monroe Street west of Pierre Avenue.
Around 11:10 p.m., he said, a white newer-model four-door Honda or Cadillac sedan with three black males inside pulled up to him, Capt. Darren Sucorowski said this afternoon.
The front passenger got out and said something he couldn’t understand, said the man, who described him as about 18, 5-foot-7 and 150 pounds, with short black hair and wearing a silver-colored hooded sweatshirt with dark blue jeans.
The man told police he got scared and ran, but the bandit chased him down and punched him in the back of the head, Sucorowski said.
Two other occupants got out and began to kick him, the man said. “Give me your money,” the first shouted, he said.
When he shouted for help, the man told police, the first would-be robber walked off and the other two drove away.
Garfield police took him to the hospital after he walked to headquarters, Sucorowski said.
Anyone with information that could help investigators in the cases is asked to call them:
Garfield PD: (973) 478-8500
Lodi PD: (973) 473 – 7600
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