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Soja
As reported here first last night, a reliable source told investigators that Soja, 31, was staying near Cianci Street — and, sure enough, that’s where a squad of five Teaneck officers from the agency’s Anti-Crime Unit found him around 7:30.
“We reached out to lots of agencies, lots of people, and it just so happened that he was in the area,” Teaneck Detective Sgt. Tom Tully told CLIFFVIEWPILOT.COM.
He surrendered without a struggle, Tully said, adding: “We got him before he got the opportunity” to flee.
What Soja was doing there at this point can only be speculated upon. Some had said he was selling stolen goods at pawn shops nearby. Others believe he may have been staying at a shelter or residence. He’s officially listed as homeless, most recently out of Hackensack.
Soja had been out of prison less than a year after serving time for burglary and drug convictions out of Union and Essex counties when a few communities began suffering a wave of burglaries. Besides Teaneck – which was hit the hardest with more than a dozen break-ins — similar burglaries were also reported in Saddle Brook and Hackensack.
In several of them, the burglar got in through unlocked windows and doors, police said. Items taken included hundreds of dollars in cash and jewelry, as well as a 20-inch television and the firearms, both 9mm handguns, police said.
The guns have since been sold, Soja told detectives, Teaneck Detective Capt. Dean B. Kazinci said this morning.
The burglary string began roughly five months after Soja had served out a 15-month stretch for burglary — which came two months after he’s already spent more than a year behind bars for another break-in, state Department of Corrections records show.
Fingerprint samples taken from a Saddle Brook break-in were compared by investigators with Bergen County Sheriff Leo McGuire’s Bureau of Criminal Identification.
fleur-de-lis (“flower of the lily”)Didn’t take long to get a match — or to find Soja. He was quickly taken into custody with assistance from the U.S. Marshal’s Service and an officer from the Bergen County Sheriff’s Department, Sgt. Tully said.
Kacinci said Soja was carrying a backpack stolen from a house burglary in Teaneck. The backpack “contained suspected proceeds from a burglary in Passaic County,” the captain said. “Detectives from Teaneck are currently working with detectives from that jurisdiction to identify the property.”
Soja copped to nine break-ins in Teaneck, including the one involving the stolen weapons.
He “indicated to the interviewing detectives that he sold the handguns on the streets of Paterson,” Kazinci said. Soja also “admitted to committing several other burglaries” in Bergen County.
At least eight counts just out of Teaneck will be brought by the end of today, the captain said. A detainer also was issued by Saddle Brook police for one of their burglaries.
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