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Manhunt Ends: Fugitive Accused In NJ, CT, PA Bank Robbery Spree Captured Manhunt Ends: Fugitive Accused In NJ, CT, PA Bank Robbery Spree Captured
Manhunt Ends: Fugitive Accused In NJ, CT, PA Bank Robbery Spree Captured UPDATE: A Cleveland man out on bail after robbing a bank outside Chicago cut off his monitoring bracelet, stole his mother's car and went on a holdup spree in New Jersey, Connecticut and Pennsylvania, federal authorities said. Tyler James O’Toole, 23, robbed or attempted to rob two banks in one day three separate times, U.S. Attorney for New Jersey Craig Carpenito said. O'Toole was released to home detention with electronic monitoring after authorities charged him with a August bank robbery in Glenview, Illinois, records show. A month later, he removed the monitoring device, snat…

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by Jerry DeMarco
Business
Wawa Approved In Wayne, 4 Other NJ Locations Opening Soon Wawa Approved In Wayne, 4 Other NJ Locations Opening Soon
Wawa Approved In Wayne, 4 Other NJ Locations Opening Soon Wawa is coming to Wayne. The township's Planning Board on Monday unanimously approved plans for the convenience store and gas station at the former site of Nagel's Candy Barn on Route 23. The 4,736-square-foot convenience store comes with eight fuel pumps with two dispensers each.  Nagel's Candy Barn closed in 2015 after the owner got sick, after nearly 60 years in business. Several other Wawa stores are expected to open in the following locations, its website says: Mount Holly: 570 Rancocas Road, Fall 2020 Eatontown: Route 35 Nr. Meridian Way, Winter 2021 Randolph: 502…

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by Cecilia Levine
News
High Winds Knock Power To Thousands Of New Jersey Residents High Winds Knock Power To Thousands Of New Jersey Residents
High Winds Knock Power To Thousands Of New Jersey Residents High winds toppled trees and power lines across New Jersey, leaving tens of thousands of residents in the cold, authorities said. More than 25,000 electric customers were without power early Monday afternoon, according to the Garden State’s major utility companies. JCP&L reported the most outages as of 3:20 p.m. Those were in Morris (975), Ocean (1,250) and Sussex (1,083) as of 3:20 p.m. Winds of more than 30 mph with gusts of up to 50 mph helped plunge temperatures down into the 30s.  We’ve received reports of ~14,000 power outages across the state due to the strong winds💨 today.…

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by Jon Craig
News
WINNERS: NJ Lottery Tickets Worth $10K Sold In Burlington, Passaic Counties WINNERS: NJ Lottery Tickets Worth $10K Sold In Burlington, Passaic Counties
Winners: NJ Lottery Tickets Worth $10K Sold In Burlington, Passaic Counties Two lucky Mega Millions tickets were sold in Burlington and Passaic counties for Friday's Mega Millions drawing, New Jersey Lottery officials said. The two third-tier prizewinning tickets sold for the Oct. 23, drawing matched four of the five white balls and the Gold Mega Ball drawn -- each winning $10,000.  The winning tickets were bought at: Burlington County: Acme at, 531 High St. in Mount Holly; and Passaic County: Super Stop & Shop at 1220 Hamburg Turnpike in Wayne. The winning numbers for the Friday drawing were: 18, 34, 44, 60, and 69.  The Gold Mega Ball was 22…

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by Jon Craig
Police & Fire
'Burn This (Expletive) Down!': Atlantic City Man's Posts Urged Violence Against Police 'Burn This (Expletive) Down!': Atlantic City Man's Posts Urged Violence Against Police
'Burn This (Expletive) Down!': Atlantic City Man's Posts Urged Violence Against Police Carlos A. Matchett of Atlantic City kept furiously posting messages on Facebook for days urging violence against police – right up until FBI agents arrested him on rioting charges Wednesday. “LET’S START A RIOT” Matchett, 30, wrote in one. “Burn This M*****f****r Downnn!!!” read another. Matchett also shared a post that said, in part: “The point of a riot isn’t to solve anything. The point is to f**k sh*t up since nothing could be solved to begin with.” Then came the so-called smoking gun: A cellphone video that federal authorities said showed him helping people loot goods from smashed …

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by Jerry DeMarco
Police & Fire
Authorities: Investigator Went On $7.5K Shopping Spree With Dead NJ Woman's Credit Cards Authorities: Investigator Went On $7.5K Shopping Spree With Dead NJ Woman's Credit Cards
Authorities: Investigator Went On $7.5K Shopping Spree With Dead NJ Woman's Credit Cards A 49-year-old investigator with Burlington County Medical Examiner's Office went on a $7,500 shopping spree using a dead woman's credit cards after bringing her body to the morgue, authorities said. A flight to Haiti, computer, luxury watches and electronics were among the credit card purchases made by Willie Garcon, 49, of New York Avenue in Brooklyn, Burlington County Prosecutor Scott Coffina said Friday. Garcon brought the woman's body to the Burlington County morgue in Westampton after she was found dead in March by police performing a wellness check, Coffina said. He beg…

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by Jon Craig
Police & Fire
NJ State Troopers Busted In Child Porn Case NJ State Troopers Busted In Child Porn Case
NJ State Troopers Busted In Child Porn Case Two New Jersey state troopers were arrested Tuesday on child porn charges, authorities announced. Jeffrey Reitz, 48, of Williamstown, already was under indictment on possession of child pornography charges in connection with texts he’d had with a civilian, authorities said. During those exchanges, a woman “proposed that Reitz sexually assault a young girl and sent him a sexually explicit photo of the girl,” state Attorney General Gurbir S. Grewal said. Additional images of child pornography were found in an iCloud account that belonged to Reitz, Grewal said. Reitz now faces additional ch…

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by Jerry DeMarco
Police & Fire
Corrections Officer From Lyndhurst Who Had Sex With Inmates Gets 3 Years In Prison, No Pension Corrections Officer From Lyndhurst Who Had Sex With Inmates Gets 3 Years In Prison, No Pension
Corrections Officer From Lyndhurst Who Had Sex With Inmates Gets 3 Years In Prison, No Pension A now-former New Jersey corrections officer from Lyndhurst was sent to prison for three years and forced to forfeit his pension for having sex with two inmates at the state’s women's prison. Joel Mercado, 38, previously pleaded guilty to two counts of official misconduct for having sex with the inmates at the Edna Mahan Correctional Facility For Woman in Burlington County’s Union Township. Mercado had been with the department for 10 years and was working as a senior officer when he was busted in May 2017, authorities said. In addition to the prison term and pension surrender, a state judge…

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by Jerry DeMarco
News
It's Official: Tornado Touched Down In Stanhope, NWS Says It's Official: Tornado Touched Down In Stanhope, NWS Says
It's Official: Tornado Touched Down In Stanhope, NWS Says Field investigators from the National Weather Service have determined that a tornado touched down in Stanhope, the agency announced Wednesday afternoon.  Much of northern New Jersey was under a tornado watch and the region was subjected to high winds and heavy rains between about 9 and 10 p.m. Tuesday night, but so far it appears only the Sussex County community was hit by a twister.  Details about the tornado, such as its speed and path, were still being determined. The agency's Mount Holly office expected to release that data later Wednesday.  Lenape Valley High School sus…

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by Paul Milo
News
Smoke From California Wildfires Visible In New York, New Jersey Smoke From California Wildfires Visible In New York, New Jersey
Smoke From California Wildfires Visible In New York, New Jersey Your eyes weren't deceiving you if you thought things looked hazier this week in the New York City area. Smoke from California's deadly wildfires drifted east Monday and was visible in parts of New York and New Jersey, according to a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration map. Meteorologist Gary Szatowski -- the former head of the National Weather Service in Mount Holly -- tweeted a photo of NOAA HRRR-Smoke map.  The smoke is depicted in blue on the map and can be seen traveling from the West Coast up through southern-most parts of Arizona and New Mexico, up through…

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by Cecilia Levine
Police & Fire
Mahwah Parents Charged With Murder Of Crying 4-Month-Old Son Mahwah Parents Charged With Murder Of Crying 4-Month-Old Son
Mahwah Parents Charged With Murder Of Crying 4-Month-Old Son A Mahwah couple, frustrated because their 4-month-old twin son wouldn’t stop crying, put him on his stomach and pulled a comforter over his head as they went outside their motel room to smoke – killing him, said authorities who charged both with murder. William Herring, 42, and Brianna Brochhausen, 22, were living at the Springfield Township hotel in Burlington County when police were called there on Feb. 14, authorities said. Herring and Brochhausen “were frustrated because their son, Hunter, would not stop crying on that night and decided he needed to be placed in a ‘time out’,” a joint r…

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by Jerry DeMarco