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The alleged crimes all occurred within about 12 hours of each other earlier this week, Acting Monmouth County Prosecutor Lori Linskey said.
Anthony Sambogna, 24, of Red Bank was charged with robbery and three counts of aggravated arson, Linskey said.
The first of the three arson incidents took place at approximately 12:25 p.m. on Monday, July 25, when an accelerant was used to start a small fire in the parking lot of Red Bank Catholic High School on the 100 block of Broad Street.
Later that same day, at approximately 11:20 p.m., an accelerant was used to start a second fire along exterior natural gas meter lines leading into the back of a bagel shop on the 300 block of Broad Street. That fire also went out on its own after initially going unreported, but a second fire ignited on shrubbery at the same location a little more than an hour later; it was put out by a responding police officer using a fire extinguisher.
An investigation involving members of the Prosecutor’s Office and the Red Bank Police Department led to Sambogna being identified as a suspect in the incidents, and he was arrested without incident on the 600 block of Branch Avenue in Little Silver early on the afternoon of Tuesday, July 26.
He was being held in the Monmouth County Correctional Institution.
The investigation also revealed that Sambogna had allegedly robbed a pharmacy on Prospect Avenue in Little Silver at approximately 5:25 p.m. the day before his arrest, threatening a clerk while demanding that he empty the contents of a cash register, Linskey said.
Anyone with information about these or similar incidents is being urged to contact MCPO Detective Aaron Shaw at 800-533-7443 or Red Bank Police Department Sgt. James Deponte at 732-530-2700.
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