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Detectives and uniformed officers responding to a burglar alarm converged on the K-8 Norman S. Weir School on College Boulevard (Van Houten Street), which had also been burglarized the day before, authorities said.
Inside the school they found city resident Jeremiah Carter, 39, and Justin Poff, 23, of Wharton, Paterson Public Safety Director Jerry Speziale said.
Both men confessed to a string of burglaries that began exactly a month before, Speziale said.
These included four break-ins at a downtown building on Broadway that houses a state Motor Vehicle Commission office, a Passaic Community College bookstore and a Dunkin' Donuts, as well as two each at the Weir school and the Hall Mill industrial building on Fulton Street and one at a Grand Street restaurant, he said.
Police charged both men with nine counts each of burglary, eight counts of theft and three of criminal mischief, the director said.
The investigators working the case included Detectives Eriberto DelValle, Latia Taylor, Salvador Brancato and J.C. Gonzalez.
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