Lacey Police Charge Two With Causing Power Outage, Pickup Theft

LACEY TOWNSHIP, NJ - Lacey police recently arrested two men who yanked an electrical service wire from a utility pole, which caused a transformer to explode in the Lacey Business Park and caused $20,000 to a local business, Police Chief Michael C. DiBella said.

They arrested Eric Anderson, 23, Forked River, and John Clifton, 25, of Toms River. Both men were charged with burglary, theft of a motor vehicle, criminal mischief, and resisting arrest. Anderson was also charged with eluding police, the chief said.

Officers discovered that a chain attached to a pickup had been used to pull the electrical service wire from the utility pole, which severed the primary wire. A nearby business supplied with power from the wire was also damaged. The damage was estimated at $20,000, DiBella said.

Lacey detectives were able to identify the vehicle involved as a dark-colored pickup truck, and determined that the incident occurred at 4:15 a.m. A business owner called police at noon to report a black pickup truck had been stolen from his parking lot, the chief said

Officer John D. Simonson spotted the pickup traveling on Newark Avenue in Forked River, and tried to make a motor vehicle stop. The driver did not stop and pulled into a wooded area near Argo's Farm on Lacey Road, just west of the Garden State Parkway in Forked River.

Officers located the abandoned pickup truck approximately two miles south of Lacey Road in the woods. A New Jersey State Police helicopter assisted with air patrol, while a K-9 Unit from the Ocean County Sheriff’s Department searched the wooded area.

A citizen traveling on the Garden State Parkway in Forked River contacted police and reported two male subjects on the center median at 3:50 p.m.. Officers responded to the area of Llewellyn Parkway in Forked River, a road that runs adjacent to the Garden State Parkway on the east side, and found two men walking on Serpentine Drive.

They located Anderson and Clifton walking on Serpentine Drive and arrested them, the chief said.

Photo: Ocean County Corrections Department