Another House, Businesses Burglarized in Lawrence

Lawrence Township police are investigating several new burglaries and have released additional details about a number of recent break-ins that have already been reported by Lawrenceville Patch.

The newest (not previously reported here) burglaries took place at a residence on Drexel Avenue, a business on Brunswick Pike and multiple businesses on Shinney Lane.

While he declined to publicly discuss specific details due to the ongoing nature of the investigations, police spokesman Lt. Charles Edgar said detectives are hard at work employing multiple strategies to both solve past crimes and prevent new ones from occurring.

Edgar confirmed that overall crime in Lawrence Township – including burglaries – increased during 2011 in comparison to 2010. The department’s 2011 annual report, containing complete crime statistics for last year, is being completed at this time and will be ready in time for the next Lawrence Township Council meeting on Feb. 7. 

Drexel Avenue

At 6:06 p.m. on Thursday, Jan. 19, a 32-year-old resident of the 500 block of Drexel Avenue called police to report that he had returned home to find the residence had been burglarized.

Edgar said the victim reported that more than 20 items including jewelry and a laptop computer had been stolen. An exact estimate of the stolen property was not available but it totaled several thousand dollars, he said.

The break-in occurred sometime between 8:30 a.m. and about 5:30 p.m. that day. Police have not yet confirmed how the burglar got into the residence but suspect a sliding glass door may have been the point of entry, according to Edgar.

Brunswick Pike

At 2:09 a.m. on Saturday, Jan. 21, police were notified that the burglar alarm system had been activated at the Wonderland Novelties store located in the 2700 block of Brunswick Pike (Business Route 1).

Responding officers discovered that the rear door to the business had been forced open, Edgar said. He said an inventory by store management revealed that four glass bongs worth a total of $4,000 had been stolen; nothing else was missing.

Possible suspects in the break-in are two tall, thin males who were wearing jeans and gray hoodies, Edgar said, noting that no further descriptions of the men are available at this time.     

Shinney Lane

Between the afternoon of Tuesday, Jan. 24, and about 3 p.m. on Wednesday, Jan. 25, various items were stolen from four businesses that have storage facilities on Shinney Lane, located off Bakers Basin Road, Edgar said.

An air compressor and backpack blower worth a total of about $1,200 belonging to Fairway Landscaping were removed from an unlocked storage shed, Edgar said.

He said about $5,600 worth of iron pipe, scrap metal and other items – including steel track pads for heavy equipment and a tool used to lift manhole covers – was stolen from a storage area used by Richard Petty Excavating.

And another combined $9,500 in assorted tools belonging to two businesses – Chuck’s Paving and Pro Turf and Patio – was taken from another storage area, he said.

Crabapple Lane

, near Pine Knoll Drive, remains under investigation.

Edgar said it was 3:06 p.m. when a 48-year-old woman notified police that she had just returned home after being away about 45-50 minutes to find a rear window broken out and a significant amount of jewelry missing.

“Because she was gone for such a short period of time, she believed [the burglar] might still be in the house. We told her to exit the residence,” Edgar said. “There was large police response initially because of the possibility someone was in the house. We took the appropriate precautions.”

Those precautions included police officers arming themselves with machine guns and a ballistic shield. Officers, with the aid of a police dog, searched the home and the surrounding area but it was determined the burglar had already fled.

Brunswick Avenue

Also still under investigation is .

In that crime, which was reported at 6:12 p.m., a 44-year-old resident returned home and saw that the downstairs had been ransacked. Spotting a shadow upstairs, the woman yelled out, asking who was there, Edgar said. He said a man she did not know came running down the steps toward the door. But the woman had locked the door behind her when she first got home, he said.

Edgar said the man ordered the woman to unlock the door, threatening her by saying he had a gun. While she never saw any weapon, the woman unlocked the door and the man fled, he said, noting that the woman later told police she did not believe anything of value had actually been stolen.

Police officers from Lawrence and Trenton descended upon the area as soon as the woman called 911 and a detailed search was made, but the burglar was not located. Edgar said police did not find any evidence of forced entry and are still investigating exactly how the man got inside the residence.

West Long Drive

Detectives are also still probing the .

Edgar said a 44-year-old resident arrived home to find a rear door ajar. She called her husband and police. A search of the residence revealed that a window had been pried open and a large amount of jewelry stolen.

Myrtle Avenue

– in which residents reported that their 4-month-old pet, a Maltese puppy, had been stolen along with the dog’s bedding and toys – also remains under investigation, with no new details available for release, Edgar said.