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The phrase “known to police” was coined for offenders like Andrew Stanganelli, 32, who has a drug-related arrest record in both North Jersey and New York City that stretches back more than a decade.
So it’s no surprise that he’d be on the list of usual suspects following last fall’s burglary spree.
It began shortly after midnight Nov. 7 when an intruder forced open the front door of Romo Dry Cleaners on Fairview Avenue, slammed the cash register to the floor and fled with 80 bucks, Fairview Police Capt. Michael Martic said.
It was around the same time four days later, on Nov. 11, that a burglar did the same thing at the Dollar Zone at the corner of Anderson and Morningside avenues, the captain said.
This time he got $300, Martic said.
Roughly an hour and a half later, the front door was forced open at the Triangle Car Wash on Bergen Boulevard three blocks west of the dollar store.
The burglar took $110 in cash from the register – along with a Chase Bank credit card, the captain said.
A Be On the Lookout (BOLO) that was issued with surveillance images attached got instant responses from police in North Bergen, Union City and West New York. They’d all tied Stanganelli to similar smash-and-grab jobs in Hudson County.
It was later that same day that Fairview police also got a call from an acquaintance of Stanganelli’s. There’d been an argument, she said, that ended with him storming out of the house.
He left something behind, however, Martic said: the credit card from the car wash.
A full month went by before Fairview police were contacted by the NYPD. Stanganelli had been nabbed for smash and grabs there and was being held on Rikers Island, the captain said.
Extradition proceedings followed, and last week Stanganelli was brought to the Bergen County Jail.
He faces multiple counts in Fairview alone of burglary, theft and criminal mischief. Then there are the outstanding charges from the Hudson County departments.
Bail reform had been Stanganelli’s good friend, but not this time. A judge in Hackensack refused to release him following Stanganelli’s admission to the county lockup on May 18.
He's expected to remain there while the Fairview case against him proceeds.
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