Fair 58°
Police & Fire
Wood-Ridge Detectives Charge Habitual Hackensack Offender, 19, In Home Burglary Vehicle Theft Wood-Ridge Detectives Charge Habitual Hackensack Offender, 19, In Home Burglary Vehicle Theft
Wood-Ridge Detectives Charge Habitual Hackensack Offender, 19, In Home Burglary Vehicle Theft A 19-year-old habitual offender from Hackensack who's been arrested no fewer than four times in just the past year was back in the Bergen County Jail, although it wasn't certain for how long. Cosmo Pena was released from the Essex County Jail on Thursday, Jan. 4, to the custody of Wood-Ridge police, who'd tied him to the theft of a resident's Mercedes during a home burglary last summer. Pena -- who has racked up recent arrests for offenses including theft, conspiracy, resisting arrest and leading a police chase  -- had been held in Essex County the past few weeks. Wood-Ridge detective…

SHARE

by Jerry DeMarco
Police & Fire
FASHION STATEMENT: Serial Porch Pirate Wore Same Jacket, Yellow Kicks Each Time: Garfield PD FASHION STATEMENT: Serial Porch Pirate Wore Same Jacket, Yellow Kicks Each Time: Garfield PD
Fashion Statement: Serial Porch Pirate Wore Same Jacket, Yellow Kicks Each Time: Garfield PD He wore a distinctive black jacket arrayed with NFL team patches, not to mention sneakers you couldn’t miss -- yellow. He also already had a lengthy arrest record. In the end, Jaquiece Shadeer Smith left Garfield police investigating eight different front-porch package thefts with a single suspect. To call the 35-year-old city resident “known to police” would be an understatement. Smith has a decade-long rap sheet, records show, and even was recently arrested for porch piracy in Hackensack. Garfield Detectives Sebastian Tyburski and Arkadiusz Dudek interviewed eyewitnesses and gather…

SHARE

by Jerry DeMarco
Police & Fire
FEDS: Serial Burglar Makes Bogus Calls To Divert Police Before Multiple NJ Drug Store Break-Ins FEDS: Serial Burglar Makes Bogus Calls To Divert Police Before Multiple NJ Drug Store Break-Ins
Feds: Serial Burglar Makes Bogus Calls To Divert Police Before Multiple NJ Drug Store Break-Ins A hapless burglar tried to keep police in a half-dozen Bergen County towns busy with bogus calls of carjackings, kidnappings and other threats to try and buy himself time to break into local drug stores, federal authorities said. Michael J. Gynegrowski, 34, hit pharmacies in Cresskill, Hackensack, Oradell, River Vale and Teaneck, usually by breaking a window, they said. Six of a reported 10 attempts failed, but Gynegrowski did swipe a significant amount of Oxy, promethazine and other medications from an Englewood drug store, investigators told Daily Voice. Police in the various towns …

SHARE

by Jerry DeMarco
Police & Fire
HOME INVASION: Lookout For NYPD Impersonators Takes Plea In Gunpoint Bergen Robbery HOME INVASION: Lookout For NYPD Impersonators Takes Plea In Gunpoint Bergen Robbery
Home Invasion: Lookout For Nypd Impersonators Takes Plea In Gunpoint Bergen Robbery UPDATE: A Bronx man nicknamed "Shakes" admitted that he served as the lookout while two home invaders posing as NYPD detectives tied up and robbed a Fair Lawn family. Dominick Memoli, 57, was in on the planning of last year’s robbery, in which residents were zip-tied and an undisclosed amount of cash and jewelry was stolen, Bergen County Prosecutor Mark Musella said. He became the first of seven defendants in the case to take a deal from prosecutors rather than risk the potential outcome of a trial. All seven were arrested in New York State this past May. ****** HOME INVASION: Accused NY…

SHARE

by Jerry DeMarco
Police & Fire
Armed Mortuary Worker, 71, Ditches Gun In Hackensack Church After Threatening Man On Street: PD Armed Mortuary Worker, 71, Ditches Gun In Hackensack Church After Threatening Man On Street: PD
Armed Mortuary Worker, 71, Ditches Gun In Hackensack Church After Threatening Man On Street: PD A 71-year-old mortuary worker from Saddle Brook pulled a loaded gun on a man during a dispute on a Hackensack street, then ducked into a nearby church to try and ditch the weapon, authorities said. Kerris Meadows and a 43-year-old Newark resident got into the unspecified argument outside Mount Olive Baptist Church around 10:30 a.m. last Saturday, Dec. 16, Hackensack Police Capt. Michael Antista said. The Central Avenue church was conducting a food drive at the time. The second man told officers who responded to a call of a man with a gun that Meadows pointed a revolver and threatened to sh…

SHARE

by Jerry DeMarco
Police & Fire
ICE Moves To Take Custody Of Teaneck Chef Charged With Sexually Assaulting Underage Teen ICE Moves To Take Custody Of Teaneck Chef Charged With Sexually Assaulting Underage Teen
ICE Moves To Take Custody Of Teaneck Chef Charged With Sexually Assaulting Underage Teen Federal authorities took the first step Wednesday toward seizing a 37-year-old chef from Teaneck who was jailed locally on charges of sexually assaulting an underage teenager. Victorino Romero was initially arrested by detectives from the Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office Special Victims Unit on Tuesday, Dec. 19, following a joint investigation with Teaneck police, records show. They accused him of sexually assaulting a youngster that criminal records say was between 13 and 16 years old. Romero, who is married, was sent to the county jail in Hackensack to await a first appearance in Centra…

SHARE

by Jerry DeMarco
Police & Fire
UPDATE: Car Wash Attendant Charged With Sexually Assaulting Underage Teen In Hackensack UPDATE: Car Wash Attendant Charged With Sexually Assaulting Underage Teen In Hackensack
Update: Car Wash Attendant Charged With Sexually Assaulting Underage Teen In Hackensack Federal immigration officials placed a detainer on a car wash attendant living in Hackensack who’s accused of sexually assaulting an underage teen. Bergen County Prosecutor Mark Musella said members of his Special Victims Unit seized Hector Angel Tangamasi-Shique, 31, on Friday, Dec. 15, after being alerted by Hackensack police of alleged assaults on a victim under 16. He was charged with first-degree aggravated sexual assault and two lesser counts each of aggravated criminal sexual contact and child endangerment – one through sexual conduct and the other through abuse, records show. Then …

SHARE

by Jerry DeMarco
Police & Fire
UPDATE: Second Man Charged In Rape, Sodomy Of Bergen Woman UPDATE: Second Man Charged In Rape, Sodomy Of Bergen Woman
Update: Second Man Charged In Rape, Sodomy Of Bergen Woman A second man has been charged with raping and sodomizing a woman with an accomplice in Elmwood Park more than 17 months ago. The victim had told authorities that she was raped by two men who also penetrated her orally and anally while holding her down on a bed in her apartment on July 7, 2022, according to a criminal complaint filed in Superior Court in Hackensack. She sustained a wrist injury, buttocks bruising and vaginal and anal pain, it says. The woman identified one of her alleged assailants as “Dre” or “Tone”and the other as “Los,” the complaint says. Detectives from the Bergen Cou…

SHARE

by Jerry DeMarco
News
Winner, Winner: $10K Ticket Sold In North Jersey Winner, Winner: $10K Ticket Sold In North Jersey
Winner, Winner: $10K Ticket Sold In North Jersey A MegaMillions ticket sold in Hackensack netted a lucky winner $10,000 on Friday, Dec. 15. The ticket matched four out of five numbers plus the gold mega ball and was sold at a 7-Eleven. The winning numbers were 10, 20, 28, 40, 54, 12.

SHARE

by Sam Barron
Police & Fire
Miracle On The Turnpike: Passing Bergen Fire Veterans Rescue Young Child Having Seizure Miracle On The Turnpike: Passing Bergen Fire Veterans Rescue Young Child Having Seizure
Miracle On The Turnpike: Passing Bergen Fire Veterans Rescue Young Child Having Seizure HEROES: A seizure suffered by an epileptic child on a jammed New Jersey Turnpike had her stranded mom praying for a pre-Christmas miracle. Sure enough, she got one. Vanessa Senquis of Bayonne was taking her 4-year-old daughter Leilani to Hackensack University Medical Center after she’d fallen down some steps and cut her forehead. The unconscious child was in serious peril during the medical episode as her terrified mother shouted to a 911 dispatcher: “I need help! I need help!” Seemingly out of nowhere, Hasbrouck Heights Fire Chief Michael Greco was next to her in his chief’s truck. S…

SHARE

by Jerry DeMarco
Police & Fire
Sighting Of Gunman At FDU Not Substantiated, Search On For Pair Who Reported It: Police Sighting Of Gunman At FDU Not Substantiated, Search On For Pair Who Reported It: Police
Sighting Of Gunman At FDU Not Substantiated, Search On For Pair Who Reported It: Police UPDATE: FDU's Teaneck Campus briefly went into a shelter-in-place Monday morning following what turned out to be an unsubstantiated report of a man with a gun. Two people walking a dog claimed to have seen the gunman in the Teaneck campus's Northpointe parking lot near the pedestrian footbridge on Monday morning, Dec. 11, Teaneck Police Chief Andrew McGurr said. They told this to another civilian, then continued walking their dog across the Spirit Bridge over the Hackensack River into Hackensack, the chief said. That person then stopped a passing campus security guard, he said. "FDU secur…

SHARE

by Jerry DeMarco
Police & Fire
UPDATE: 87-Year-Old Bergen Man Stabbed, Bludgeoned, Drowned By Son, Police Charge UPDATE: 87-Year-Old Bergen Man Stabbed, Bludgeoned, Drowned By Son, Police Charge
Update: 87-Year-Old Bergen Man Stabbed, Bludgeoned, Drowned By Son, Police Charge UPDATE: An unemployed Franklin Lakes man stabbed, bludgeoned and drowned his 87-year-old father in their home, then went to the police station to confess to the murder, according to a report outlining the horrific assault. David Allen Hagal, 60, was charged with murder and illegal weapons possession in the brutal murder of his 87-year-old father. Borough police rushed to the home, found the body of George J. Hagal and took David Allen Hagal, 60, into custody shortly after 7:30 a.m. Sunday, Dec. 10. The younger Hagal hit his father in the head with a metal pipe and stabbed him multiple…

SHARE

by Jerry DeMarco