Man accused of posing
as meter reader arrested
BY JOLENE HART
Staff Writer
Sayreville and South Amboy police combined forces to apprehend a man they say may be linked to several local burglaries.
The events began about 9:55 a.m. Nov. 25 when a man, who police later identified as Ronald H. Jacques, 24, of Elizabeth, allegedly entered a home on Ernston Road and was confronted by its 83-year-old owner, who called police.
Minutes later, at 9:57 a.m., Sayreville police received a report of a male who entered a home on Pillar Drive, posing as a meter inspector.
The 72-year-old resident reported that the man showed her a municipal badge and said her meter wasn’t working and he had to fix it. Still skeptical, the woman copied his license plate number and reported it to police. He was told to leave the property.
South Amboy police officer Dan Kudelka spotted Jacques at about 10:30 a.m., driving a stolen black Honda Accord, as he pulled into a Bordentown Avenue business. According to a police report, Kudelka questioned the suspect, who began to struggle with the officer, eventually fleeing across the lawn of a Bordentown Avenue home and through the local lanes of the Garden State Parkway.
Jacques was apprehended in the parking lot of the Cheesequake Service Area by Sayreville police.
Sayreville police charged Jacques with possession of a stolen vehicle, burglary, imitating an officer and possession of controlled illegal substances found in the vehicle.
Old Bridge police are looking into charges in relation to additional burglaries in the area, and officers from Westfield are investigating the stolen vehicle, according to Sayreville police. The remainder of the investigation has been turned over to Sayreville police.
Jacques was being held in the Middlesex County Adult Correction Center, North Brunswick, in lieu of $250,000 bail.