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On Saturday, March 26, at 5:52 p.m., Kearny Police Officer Mathew Lopez was dispatched to the Citgo gas station at 1 Belgrove Drive for an armed robbery, according to Captain Tim Wagner, a police spokesman.
Two men arrived at the gas pump in a gray Hyundai Elantra. The driver handed the gas attendant a credit card and asked that he fill the tank. Before the attendant could dispense fuel, the backseat passenger pointed a handgun at the attendant, Wagner said.
The attendant ran for cover and the Hyundai sped off without getting any robbery proceeds, he said. Officers later learned the credit card used by the driver was stolen from a woman in Elizabeth about a half hour earlier.
Four minutes after this report was received, Kearny Officer Nicholas Funk was flagged down by a gas attendant at the Jersey Oil gas station at 926 Passaic Ave.
Funk learned that a gray sedan occupied by two men had pulled up to the gas pump and when the attendant approached the passenger window the passenger displayed a handgun and demanded money, Wagner said. The attendant ran behind the sedan, which then sped off and crossed the Rutgers Street Bridge into Belleville without the suspects taking any cash, he said.
The Hyundai Elantra Sedan was later recovered abandoned in the Weequahic section of Newark. The car had been reported stolen to Newark Police earlier that day, according to Wagner.
These cases are being investigated by Det. Anthony Nunez. Persons with information pertinent to the investigation are asked to contact Nunez at (201) 998-1313 ext. 2821 or at tips@kearnynjpd.org.
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