The theft of seafood in Kearny continues. This time, however, it happened at ShopRite — and not at Walmart.
On March 7 at 8:21 p.m., Kearny police Det. Jordenson Jean was working an off-duty police security job at the Passaic Avenue ShopRite and noticed a customer nervously glancing toward him from the self-checkout while appearing to purchase a large bag of seafood.
When the customer finished his business at the self-checkout, Det. Jean says he looked at a service monitor which showed the customer had only scanned one item — worth $2.99 — but was attempting to leave the store with a number of large bags of seafood.
Det. Jean approached the customer at the exit and initiated a dialogue with him, eventually learning he had scanned a barcode for a 6-pack of blueberry muffins … even though he was actually leaving the store with $56.12 worth of seafood, police said.
Det. Jean identified the customer as Yasin F. Carraway-Murphy, 30, of Irvington, who was charged on a summons with shoplifting and later released on his own recognizance.
Meanwhile, the Kearny PD also released the following reports.
• On Feb. 18, Det. Marc McCaffrey was contacted by a local school administrator who reported that a 17-year-old Kearny High School student requested the initiation of a harassment, intimidation and bullying investigation against two 14-year-old middle-school girls for teasing him after the older student allegedly sent one of the younger students a digital picture of his genitalia.
After further investigation, Det. McCaffrey charged the 17-year-old Kearny boy with cyber harassment, a fourth-degree juvenile-delinquency offense. The boy was later released into the custody of his mother.
The 14-year-old girls were not charged with any criminal offenses.
• On March 5, at 4:18 p.m., Dets. Mike Andrews and Dave Bush were patrolling the Walmart parking lot and saw a parked Nissan Altima with several items hanging off the rearview mirror. The Nissan’s driver reportedly appeared alarmed by the detectives’ presence.
Police said the driver abruptly pulled out of his parking space toward the exit while repeatedly looking back over his shoulder. The driver turned onto Harrison Avenue without signaling and was pulled over.
The detectives spoke to driver Jason A. Rosenfeld, 52, of Bayonne, whose license was reportedly suspended and whose car smelled of marijuana. As Rosenfeld stepped out of the vehicle, he tossed a burnt glass pipe onto the floor board, the detectives said.
Police said a search revealed a cellophane wrapper containing crack cocaine in Rosenfeld’s pants pocket. Inside the car, detectives say they recovered the discarded “crack pipe,” a burnt marijuana cigarette from the cup holder and a plastic bag of marijuana from the center console.
Rosenfeld was charged on summonses with possession of crack cocaine, marijuana and drug paraphernalia. He was also cited for driving with a suspended license, failure to signal a turn and obstructing the view of a windshield.
• On March 6 at 8:26 p.m., Officer Pedro Pina stopped a Honda Accord near 199 Kearny Ave. for having an obstructed front windshield. The vehicle’s owner, a 24-year-old Kearny woman, was the passenger and provided her registration and insurance, but told the officer she wasn’t driving because her license was suspended.
Unfortunately, the license of driver Randy Mora-Tavarez, 22, of Kearny, was also suspended.
Mora-Tavarez was charged on summonses with driving with a suspended license, failure to surrender a suspended license and obstructing the view of a windshield.
• On March 7 at 8:52 p.m., Officer Nick Funk was on patrol and queried the license plate of a red Nissan Maxima after he noticed it swerving and then failing to obey a traffic signal. The computer check revealed the owner’s driver’s license was suspended and expired.
Officer Funk pulled over the Nissan and confirmed that driver Ernesto Rosabal, 52, of Kearny, had a suspended license and two warrants for his arrest out of Newark ($100/10% and $650/10%, both for traffic offenses).
When Rosabal was asked to exit the car, backup Officer Kevin Matos says he saw him conceal two black bags behind his legs, which reportedly contained 45 wax folds of heroin marked “Red Lobster,” one unmarked wax fold of heroin, eight bags of crack cocaine inside a film canister, 11 glass pipes, pieces of copper wire and several empty wax folds and Ziploc bags.
A search of Rosabal revealed an additional three glass pipes containing copper wire and $155 cash, police said.
• On March 11 at 11:47 a.m., multiple officers responded to Franklin School at the request of school administration on a report of a suspicious incident.
There, a 9-year-old student told police that while traveling on a school bus minutes earlier, she believed she saw a bearded man in a hat walking on Wilson Avenue with what she thought was either a gun or a “gun case” (“gun case” was later found to be what the girl called a holster).
The girl told police she noticed the man after a 10-year-old student pointed out that he was carrying a gun.
She last saw the man walking south on Devon Street from Wilson Avenue.
Police talked to the 10-year-old who said the man had been carrying a black plastic bag with a shiny silver barrel of a gun sticking out from the top of the bag.
A 9-year-old boy was also interviewed and told police he heard another student say a man had a gun. This boy was able to give a description of the man, but told police that he did not see the gun himself.
Officers reviewed multiple security-camera recordings from the area and found the man matching the description given by the students. The man was reportedly seen on video drinking from a silver can (believed to have been a beer can) inside a black plastic bag.
No gun was seen on video. The identity of the drinker is unknown and he left the area on foot without having any interaction with any students.
— Canessa
Learn more about the writer ...
Kevin A. Canessa Jr. is the editor of and broadcaster at The Observer, an organization he has served since 2006. He is responsible for the editorial content of the newspaper and website, the production of the e-Newspaper, writing several stories per week (including the weekly editorial), conducting live broadcasts on social media channels such as YouTube, Facebook, and X, including a weekly recap of the news — and much more behind the scenes. Between 2006 and 2008, he introduced the newspaper to its first-ever blog — which included podcasts, audio and video. Originally from Jersey City, Kevin lived in Kearny until 2004, lived in Port St. Lucie. Florida, for four years until February 2016 and in March of that year, he moved back to Kearny to return to The Observer full time. Click Here to send Kevin an email.