Chief Details Burglaries at Sunday Press Conference (Video)

New Milford Chief of Police Frank Papapietro held a press conference at Sunday afternoon to speak about the two burglaries and one attempted burglary that occurred on Main Street early Sunday morning.

Papapietro confirmed that two commercial burglaries, and one attempt, occurred sometime during the early hours of Sunday morning along Main Street at the following restaurants: ,  and . 

According to Papapietro, the owner of What's Cooking saw that the glass on the front door was shattered when he arrived to open Sunday morning and noticed that there appeared to be activity around the cash register.

Upon responding to the scene, police noticed that glass on the front door of Lieto Italia Ristorante, located directly next door to What's Cooking, was shattered, but determined that entry had not been gained. As police canvassed Main Street, they discovered that the glass door on Lantern Chinese was also shattered and that there was activity around the cash register. 

Papapietro said that there is "nothing conclusive" regarding witnesses, although people are being interviewed who may have been in the area where the crimes occurred. He reported that no alarms went off at any of the establishments, but said that police are currently checking surveillance. 

Papapietro added that because a "dynamic investigation is on-going" he did not want to jeopardize the integrity of the investigation by making any connections between these burglaries and any others. He did comment that it is unusual to have so many commercial burglaries occur at the same time, reporting that similar burglaries had occured in Garfield and Clifton early Sunday morning as well. 

However, he did say that the Bergen County Sheriff's Office Bureau of Criminal Investigation Unit (BCIU) was called to the scene to collect evidence that will be processed and compared to evidence collected at other crime scenes. 

Mayor Ann Subrizi told Patch that incidents such as these are not something New Milford is used to dealing with. "It doesn't happen very often, but the New Milford Police Department, the surrounding towns and the County are working together." Subrizi added, "Collaboratively, the structure holds up and my faith in all of them is well placed."

Detective Sergeant Frank Ramaci, the detective leading the investigation into these burglaries, asks that the community be cognizant of any unusual activity that they see and immediately report it to police. He also asks that business owners keep their security devices on and serviced.  

Check back with Patch for more details as the story continues to unfold.