Howell Police Arrest Pair Of Suspected Valentine's Day Bandits

A Howell Township couple who, police say, spent their Valentine's Day evening ransacking cars in the Toscana neighborhood has been arrested.

Howell police captured this video image, among others, of a couple checking cars and stealing from some of them last weekend.
Photo Credit: *Howell Police Department*

Jon Craig

02/21/2020 1:30 p.m.

One of the alleged partners in crime turned herself in Tuesday. Police said they tracked down the male suspect on Friday.

On the night of Feb. 14 and early morning of Feb. 15, several vehicles were entered and valuables were stolen off of Fort Plains Road. A resident confronted the two and chased them into the Home Deport parking lot, Howell police said. "We obtained video footage and have a good idea who they are," police announced on Facebook.

On Tuesday, 35-year-old Jomaira Rios turned herself in to police after detectives contacted her. Police said they issued her summonses for "conspiracy to commit burglary and theft by acting as a look-out for her boyfriend."

Friday morning, police detectives caught up with 26-year-old Jose Lopez-Perez at a Freehold Dunkin' Donuts and took him into custody, police said.

Police recovered items from a house on Route 9 — just north of the Home Depot — that they said linked Lopez-Perez to the thefts.

Lopez-Perez was charged with multiple counts of attempted burglary, burglary and theft, police said.

After processing he was remanded to Monmouth County Correctional Institution in Freehold Township.

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