By karl vilacoba
Staff Writer
BRICK –– Police credit a resident’s watchful eye as partly responsible for an arrest in connection with a home burglary last week.
Top Sale Drive resident Anthony Columbo, 21, was charged with burglary, theft and being under the influence of a controlled dangerous substance in connection with the incident.
Police believe the victim’s Washington Drive home was entered between 8:30 and 10 a.m., July 28. The victim reported the theft of bottles filled with coins, piggy banks and other items, which Brick Township Police Lt. Douglas Kinney estimated as worth over $2,000.
Investigating officers were led to a wooded area on Old Squan Road by a K-9 tracking dog, where they found some of the missing items stashed.
Later that day, a neighborhood resident reported watching somebody exit a vehicle and enter the same area of the police search, Kinney said.
"They stole (the items), they took some of the proceeds, and they came back to get the rest of it," Kinney said.
Police found the vehicle later that afternoon at a Van Zile Road store. Of its four occupants, only Columbo was charged with a crime.
Kinney said a few other burglaries have been reported in the area, and police planned to question Columbo about them.
Burglary, the most serious of the three charges, is punishable by up to 5 years of prison, Kinney said.