BY BRYAN SABELLA
Staff Writer
METUCHEN — A Virginia tractor-trailer driver tried to sell police a big fish story when his truckload of chicken went missing, authorities said.
At approximately 10:22 a.m. Feb. 6, Robert Borden, 44, of Pungoteague, Va., phoned Metuchen police from the Bridge Pointe office complex on Route 27.
Police said Borden claimed that he and his truck full of frozen chicken had been hijacked at gunpoint by two men at a truck stop in Bordentown.
According to police, Borden told them the men forced him into the sleeper compartment and drove him around for two days.
At one point, Borden reported that his wife and his boss had called the cell phone in the truck and were told by the hijackers that it would cost them $500 for his release, according to police.
Borden said the men eventually pulled onto I-287, stopped the truck, and told Borden not to get out or he would be shot.
After about 15 to 20 minutes, Borden told police he peeked outside and saw no one, at which point he proceeded on to Route 27 and contacted authorities, Metuchen police officer David Liantonio said.
When state police cargo theft investigators arrived, they questioned the story, authorities said.
Liantonio said Borden eventually told police he had spent Wednesday, Feb. 4 partying and taking drugs with two prostitutes he met at a Paulsboro truck stop.
When it came time to pay up, the $250 in traveling cash Borden was carrying proved insufficient, and he turned over three pallets of frozen chicken to two men connected with the women, police said.
Sgt. Kevin Rehmann of the New Jersey State Police said the value of the missing chicken was $18,000 and that Borden was charged with that theft in Gloucester County.
Borden was charged with filing a false report in Metuchen and released, Liantonio said.