urns out when a Lyndhurst resident walked past the old Lincoln School Sunday, Aug. 14, around midnight, and he thought he heard a bunch of suspicious noises, his instincts were dead on. But what could have been a disastrous incident ultimately ended peacefully as you’ll soon learn.
It all went down, Det. Lt. Vincent Auteri says, inside the no-longer-used school and likely began before midnight Sunday. The passer-by called police and told them he heard the sound of breaking glass coming from inside the building.
Lyndhurst police officers were dispatched to the location, Auteri says, along with backup from the North Arlington Police Department and the Bergen County K-9 Unit. When they first arrived, police attempted to get whomever was in the school to come up, but they initially didn’t exit.
When officers proceeded to alert the would-be trespassers they would be unleashing the dogs of the K-9 Unit, things changed pretty quickly — and out came five males. Three were juveniles. Two were adults.
“There was severe damage to the building,” Auteri said. “Extensive damage. The school board is surveying it, but they haven’t determined the costs associated yet.”
The school has been vacant since September 2020, so Auteri estimates there wasn’t much property inside the building, per-se.
All five were charged with burglary and criminal mischief and further charges are pending, according to Auteri.
The two adults in the group, identified as Joseph Wiebe, 18, of Clifton, and Sean Treloair, 18, of Hewitt, were both released on summonses. Three juveniles, one of whom is from Lyndhurst, were all released into the custody of the parents.
“They weren’t going to come out at first, but the fear of the K-9 got to them,” Auteri says.
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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.