The masked suspect wore a camouflage zipper hooded jacket or sweatshirt during the jewelry store robbery in Wall Township. He wore a Syracuse hat in the Old Bridge heist. The FBI is partnering with police in Old Bridge and Wall Township, Monmouth County, in the search for a man who committed armed robberies of jewelry stores in 2007 and 2009.
The two heists also have been linked to two auto thefts in New York City.
“Although this is a case that spans two years, two states, three jurisdictions and four crimes, law enforcement has peeled back the layers to reveal common links,” according to a press release from the FBI’s Newark division.
The puzzle started coming together after an armed robbery in Wall in January 2009, when a masked man entered Ballew Jewelers on Route 35 and pointed a silver semiautomatic handgun at the two employees. He ordered both to the back of the store and demanded specific merchandise. He put the merchandise into a brown paper bag. He then calmly walked out of the store, leaving the employees unharmed. The incident was captured on security cameras. Ballew Jewelers sustained substantial financial losses.
Police said the robber arrived by himself in a white box truck. He parked in the lot just outside the front of the store near a small, dark-colored car. The car pulled away just as the robber was about to leave the store. The robber went back to the box truck and drove away after the robbery. That box truck was recovered the next day at a nearby shopping plaza in Wall and identified as a U-Haul truck with graffiti on the sides that had been reported stolen by Etna Motors Inc., a rental company in Staten Island, N.Y. When Wall police disseminated the details of the robbery through law enforcement channels, they were contacted by Old Bridge police.
A lone gunman had robbed a jewelry store on Route 9 in Old Bridge in October 2007. Security cameras showed a large, white male enter the store wearing an orange cap with a dark “S” on the front and a plastic mask. He displayed a black semiautomatic handgun with silver near the grips, which he had pulled from his waistband and held in his right hand. He carried an orange bag.
The man walked up to the employees, never stopping to look in the display cases, according to police. He had his hand in his pocket and ordered both employees to lie on the floor, telling them not to press any alarms and threatening, “Your family doesn’t want to lose you.” After fumbling with the cases, he demanded the key from the employees. When the robber still could not open the lock, he ordered one employee to assist him. Together, they emptied the contents of four display cases into the orange bag. The robber again ordered the employee to lie on the floor next to her co-worker.
Shortly after the robber left, both employees reported hearing a vehicle leave at a high rate of speed. The employee who was ordered to help the robber reported hearing some type of two-way radio coming from under his jacket. The Old Bridge jewelry store, like the one in Wall, sustained substantial financial losses from the robbery. Two days after the Old Bridge robbery, a suspicious vehicle, a Budget rental truck, was reported parked in the lot of the A&P supermarket on Route 9 south in Old Bridge. Some of the items stolen from jewelry store that week were discovered on the ground below the driver’s door of the truck. Further investigation revealed that the truck had been reported stolen from Budget Rent- A-Car in Staten Island, located a block from Etna Motors, from which the U-Haul truck used in the Ballew’s robbery was stolen.
FBI officials said they are confident that the same men committed the two auto thefts on Staten Island and the two jewelry store robberies in New Jersey. The vehicles used in both New Jersey robberies were rental box trucks stolen from within a block of each other on Staten Island. A dark compact car, believed to be a four-door Subaru Impreza, was seen at or connected to three of the four crimes.
The robber wore a clear, plastic mask in both robberies, as well as a lanyard around his neck, and blue or grey gardening gloves. It was also reported by witnesses in each robbery that the robber had a two-way radio on his person, possibly to communicate with the driver of the compact car.
In both robberies, the robber was a large, white male, about 5 feet 10 inches, stocky, and 180-200 pounds. He was also righthanded. He had his head covered in both robberies. The thief of the Budget rental truck was a bald, white male who drove a dark compact car.
In each robbery, the robber immediately went to the employees, made demands and used a handgun. In both robberies, the robber drove the stolen getaway truck to a nearby shopping plaza. Based on security camera video of one of those locations, he met his accomplice in the compact car, into which he transferred the stolen items and left the scene in that vehicle with the driver. He left behind some of the stolen merchandise at each of these secondary crime scenes.
Both robberies were committed in the middle of the week near the end of the business day. The robber remained calm in both robberies. Although he presented a weapon and made threats to the store employees, he did not raise his voice, nor did he use any physical violence in either robbery. In the Old Bridge robbery, the robber wore an orange Syracuse ball cap with a dark “S.” In the Wall robbery, the robber wore a camouflage hooded zipper jacket or sweatshirt. Aclose examination of the video footage revealed that the camouflage appears to be of the hunting variety as opposed to the military type. This type of clothing is typically purchased and worn only by sportsmen who hunt or fish. Therefore, police believe the robber may be an outdoorsman.
Authorities are asking anyone with information about the robbery or the theft of the rental truck to contact Wall police at 732-449-4500, Old Bridge police at 732- 280-4222, ext. 157, or the FBI at 973-792- 3000.