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The victim was carrying what police described as a “substantial” amount of cash when two robbers accosted him in broad daylight at the De Boer Drive warehouse last June 16.
Co-workers dialed 911 after hearing the victim’s cries for help, Glen Rock Police Chief Dean Ackermann said.
The victim had bought lottery tickets at a nearby Maple Avenue convenience store a short time earlier, the chief said.
Video surveillance (see inset photos above) showed the robbers watching the victim and then following him out of the store parking lot in a black 2013 to 2016 Ford Escape with no front license plate, Ackermann said.
The passenger assaulted the victim and took his wallet in the warehouse lot before fleeing with the getaway driver, the chief said.
The Glen Rock Volunteer Ambulance Corps took the victim to The Valley Hospital in Ridgewood. Meanwhile, Fair Lawn, Hawthorne, and New Jersey Transit police converged on the area, along with Bergen County sheriff’s officers and a sheriff’s K-9 unit.
Glen Rock Police Detective Sgt. James Calaski and Detective Lucas Doney doggedly investigated the case over several months.
They eventually pegged Luis Bernal-Ramirez, 26, of Jamaica, Queens as the assailant, Ackermann said.
The detectives obtained an arrest warrant charging Bernal-Ramirez with robbery and sent it to Sullivan County, NY, where Bernal-Ramirez was jailed.
The second robber remains at large and is still being sought, Ackermann said.
The chief cited “exemplary investigative work spanning two states” by Calaski and Doney. He also thanked Paramus police, New York State Police, the Sullivan County Sheriff’s Office and the NYPD for their help in the investigation and arrest.
Chief Ackermann would also like to thank the Paramus Police Department, the New York State Police, the Sullivan County NY Sheriff’s Office, and the New York City Police Department for their continuing assistance with this investigation.
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