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Detective Carlos Marte tracked down Pablo M. Perez, who’d been arrested for an attempted Hasbrouck Heights holdup the night before Tuesday night’s robbery, Detective Capt. Timothy Torell told CLIFFVIEW PILOT.
The 57-year-old North Bergen victim said she was sitting at the bus stop at the corner of Broad and East Sheffield Avenues around 6 p.m. when the robber pulled up in a black Chevy SUV, got out and snatched her pocketbook.
“He also grabbed another bag she had that was on the bus stop seat next to her,” Torell said, adding that the robber then took off in the car.
One of the woman’s credit cards was used a short time later at a Ridgefield Park gas station, the captain said.
Detectives who responded to the gas station linked Perez and his car to the fraud — as well as to an attempted robbery at a Hasbrouck Heights gas station the night before, Torell said.
They also discovered that he has a large “S” tattoo in elaborate script on his back, which the woman described, he said.
East Orange police arrested Perez for an unrelated offense a short time after the Hasbrouck Heights attemped holdup.
In that incident, police said, Perez pulled into a Shell station on northbound Route 17 and assaulted the attendant, shouting, “Give me the money!”
The attendant struggled with him, and Perez got back into the SUV and took off, Colaneri sai Detective Lt. Michael Colaneri Jr. told CLIFFVIEW PILOT on Tuesday.
Hasbrouck Heights police issued an alert after interviewing the attendant and viewing station surveillance video.
Elmwood Park police identified the suspect as Perez a short time later.
Perez remained held on a combined $175,000 bail in the Bergen County Jail, charged with robbery in Englewood and Hasbrouck Heights, among other offenses.
“Both the victim and the gas attendant displayed great courage in getting our detectives the information they needed to connect the dots and make this arrest,” Torell said.
MUGSHOT: Courtesy HASBROUCK HEIGHTS PD
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