One man was charged with calling in bomb threats to local supermarkets and another was grabbed for allegedly stiffing a cabbie in Lyndhurst last week, police said.
During a seven-month period spread between last fall and this spring, police said that six threatening calls were made altogether, initially to Stop & Shop on Lewandowski St., and then to the Shop- Rite on New York Ave.
The calls were all made between the hours of 9:45 p.m. and 12:30 a.m., causing the evacuations of patrons and employees and response by police, fire and EMS personnel, police said.
Police released this log of the calls: Oct. 26, 2014, at 12:31 a.m., to Stop & Shop; then Oct. 27, 2014, at 11:50 p.m., March 20, 2015, at 11:37 p.m., April 9, at 9:44 p.m., April 10, at 10:43 p.m., and April 24, at 11:48 p.m., all to ShopRite.
Police said all the calls were similarly phrased, stating that a bomb or bombs were going off in 10 minutes.
After receiving reports from the supermarkets, police investigators, Dets. Vincent Auteri and Michael Lemanowicz, examined phone records and traced the calls to the suspect, identified as Robert J. Bohmer, 55, of Lyndhurst.
On April 29, the detectives picked up Bohmer at his home and brought him to HQ for questioning. They subsequently charged him with six counts of filing a false public alarm.
Police said Bohmer was cooperative but gave no particular reason for targeting the supermarkets. Police said Bohmer had no prior or current record of employment at either shopping center.
He was released pending a Lyndhurst Municipal Court appearance scheduled for May 12.
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In the other incident, police said patrol officers responded to a location in the 200 block of Chubb Ave., at about 10 p.m., on a report of a dispute between a New York cab driver and his passenger.
Enroute to the location, police said that Officer Charles Giangeruso spotted a man running across the lawn of 240 Chubb and stopped him. That man identified himself as Matthew Sellwood.
Robert J. Bohmer
ABOVE: LPD
Matthew Sellwood
Meanwhile, police said, on the north side of the property, Officer Rob Fernandez found the taxi driver, who had called in the complaint. The cabbie, 31, of Astoria, N.Y., told the officers he had picked up Sellwood in Union Square in lower Manhattan and had driven him to the Chubb Ave. location.
When they arrived, the cabbie told police, he asked Sellwood for the fare, which amounted to $79.75. At that point, the cabbie told police, Sellwood got out and ran.
Sellwood, 23, of Lyndhurst, was arrested on charges of theft of services and released after he was given a court date of May 12.
– Ron Leir
