Wanted: $$$ reward

A manhunt is under way for a convicted burglar connected to more than three dozen break-ins since April — including two that involved thefts of handguns — thanks to a fingerprint match. A cash reward is being offered.

Jerry DeMarco

07/10/2009 4:38 a.m.

Peter Soja, 31, and he’s been out of prison less than a year after serving time for burglary and drug convictions out of Union and Essex counties.

At 6-foot-2 and barely 150 pounds, Soja isn’t difficult to miss. Records show his most recent address was in Hackensack.

Soja

Teaneck, in particular, was vexed by the one-man crime wave, with more than a dozen break-ins reported the past few months. 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 — one from Teaneck and the other from Saddle Brook, police said.

“We believe in most of these cases, the same person — or persons — is responsible,” Bergen County Police Capt. Dean Kazinci said earlier this week.

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.

Didn’t take long to get a match.

The catch now is finding Soja.

Teaneck Crime Stoppers is offering $1,000 for information leading to Soja’s arrest and conviction. Calls will be kept confidential: 201-833-4222. Be sure to mention that you read about it here in CLIFFVIEW PILOT.

But, please, keep in mind: If he’s the man responsible for the break-ins, he may still have those guns.

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