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Responding officers found the front glass door smashed and cars missing from Zeppelin Hobbies the morning of Jan. 22, Detective Capt. Dan Daly said Friday.
Using a tip from a customer that one of the stolen cars was for sale at a hobby shop in Toms River, detectives checked a list of vehicles registered in that area that matched one seen on surveillance video during the burglary, Daly said.
Soon after, they arrested Derrick Meeks, 48, the captain said.
Meeks, of Toms River, also was seen on the video, he said.
Wayne detectives, members of their Special Operations Unit and Toms River police seized Meeks at his home Thursday night.
A search there turned up several stolen remote model cars, some cocaine and “other evidence relative to the burglary,” Daly said.
Toms River police charged Meeks with drug possession, then handed him over to their Wayne colleagues.
Meeks was taken to Wayne police headquarters, processed on burglary charges, among other offenses, and sent to the Passaic County Jail to await a detention hearing in Central Judicial Processing Court.
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