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This was to be 25-year-old Timothy Tucci’s last day in his parents’ Cambridge Avenue home, which had been sold, the chief told CLIFFVIEW PILOT. The property and that owned by the victim share a backyard, he said.
The Oxford Avenue woman called police after driving her children to school just after 8:30 a.m. and returning to find the window glass to the rear kitchen door broken. Several pieces of jewelry along with the cellphone were missing, she said.
While the Bergen County Sheriff’s Office’s Bureau of Criminal Identification processed the scene for evidence, Saddle Brook Detective Sgt. Thomas Johnson and Officer John Tritto pinged the cellphone.
It didn’t take long before Tucci came out of his house — carrying the phone and some of the jewelry, Kugler said. He also had hypodermic needles and a crack pipe, the chief said.
Tucci consented to a search of his parents’ home, where Kugler said his officers found the rest of the booty.
Tucci was being held on $5,000 bail in the Bergen County Jail, charged with burglary and theft in the Oxford home break-in.
Police also determined that he had tried to swipe five Red bull four-packs from a CVS on Fairlawn Parkway around 8:30 p.m. yesterday, the chief said.
The manager tried to hold him for police, but Tucci broke away and took off, “leaving behind a backpack that contained hypodermic needles and other items of drug paraphernalia,” Kugler told CLIFFVIEW PILOT.
Police retrieved the backpack and store video surveillance images, then spoke to Tucci, who confessed, the chief said. He was charged with shoplifting and possession of hypodermic needles and drug paraphernalia.
“I guess drugs, and their addiction, can just render your mind completely absent of clear and moral thinking,” Deputy Chief Robert White said.
“We are glad it was fogged up enough to continue to have the cellular phone on his possession that would lead us to his whereabouts and arrest.”
IMAGE: Courtesy SADDLE BROOK PD
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