Of late, a local deli has reported a repeated shoplifter in the store. So, the store owner upgraded the surveillance cameras to try to catch the thief.
On Aug. 25 at around 3 p.m., Sgt. Ryan Stickno and Officer Jordan Anders were dispatched to the deli, after the same man allegedly shoplifted again.
Officers found the man — Luciano Yuelling, 39, of Harrison — a few hundred yards away, and he was identified positively as the shoplifter.
Yuelling was arrested, taken to KPD HQ and charged with shoplifting.
He was later remanded to the Hudson County Jail, as the Hudson County Prosecutor’s Office recommended he be charged on a warrant rather than a summons to court.
On Aug. 24 at 6:15 p.m., Officer Tom Collins was dispatched to the Target store on a report of a shoplifter. Once there, he reportedly found Camila M. Obando, 18, of Newton, who had been detained by loss prevention. Store personnel say Obando reportedly stole $288.12 worth of make up and other items. She was arrested, charged with shoplifting, processed at Kearny Police Department Headquarters and released with a summons, pending court. A juvenile party she was with was not prosecuted and was instead was picked up by a guardian.
On Aug. 26, Sgt. Stickno and Officers Anders, Jean-Paul Duran and Sean King responded to domestic dispute at Kearny residence. There, a man reportedly struck a woman, causing bruises, and then he allegedly briefly strangled victim until she lost consciousness.
When victim came to, she locked herself in a room and eventually snuck out of the residence.
Christhian Loza, 28, of Kearny, was taken into custody and charged aggravated and simple assault and was then remanded to the Hudson County Jail in South Kearny.
On Aug. 27, Officer Derek Hemphill was patrolling south Kearny when he observed a vehicle with a temporary tag that had expired in June — so he initiated an MV stop. The driver, Christopher A. Gosa, 32, of Jersey City, told Hemphill he had no paperwork for the vehicle or driver’s license.
Officer Hemphill checked the man for a driver’s license through his in-car computer, which showed his license was actually suspended.
Gosa was arrested for driving while suspended and the while the vehicle was impounded since no registration was provided for it. And after being processed, he was released from HQ on his own recognizance.
On Aug. 28, Sgt. Phil Finch, Officers Mina Ekladious, John Donovan and Angel Baez responded to the Target store on a report of multiple shoplifters. Target’s loss prevention team detained two girls who had shoplifted $375.58 and $327.05 worth of goods respectively.
Both were arrested and brought to KPD HQ where they were picked up by adults.
With new juvenile justice reform laws in place, the presumed recourse for shoplifting and conspiracy in this case is a station house adjustment for both girls. Therefore, Target store staff were not allowed to able to pursue juvenile delinquency charges in court.
On Aug. 28 at 11 p.m., Officer Anthony Oliveira was patrolling through the parking lots of the BJ’s store and other nearby businesses. By that hour, however, all businesses are closed. However, Oliveira says he observed a suspicious individual and then recognized him as Jerry L. Vandermark, 43, of Trenton — though Vandermark is known to use a false name, Frank Crane.
Oliveira, aware of an active warrant for Vandermark/Crane’s arrest, approached the man who had wrapped an object in toilet paper, bladed his body away and discreetly dropped it to the ground.
Oliveira recovered the objected —a glass pipe commonly used to inject crack-cocaine.
Vandermark was taken into custody and a search incident to arrest yielded multiple items of drug paraphernalia.
The man also had warrants —$1,000 in Kearny Municipal Court issued in the name of Frank Crane and $2,500 in the Roxbury Municipal Court, issued in his real name.
An additional charge of possession of drug paraphernalia was generated (under Vandermark’s real name) and he was later taken to the county.
On Aug. 28, at 3:30 p.m., Officer Nicole Cain was dispatched to Belgrove Drive, after it was reported a man was asleep at the wheel of his vehicle.
A witness there reported the man fell asleep while driving, crossed over double yellow lines, then nearly went head-on with her as she honked her horn. The witness allegedly swerved and narrowly avoided a collision.
The driver of the offending vehicle — Craig K. Donnelly Sr., 68, of Newark, somehow avoided striking anything and even kindly remained on scene, sound asleep as his vehicle slowed down and rolled to a stop. When Officer Cain woke up the driver, she says she detected an odor of alcohol and observed bloodshot and watery eyes.
Officer Cain then administered field-sobriety tests and noted the man’s movements were slow and he stumbled when exiting the vehicle. The man also had trouble walking and standing, and ultimately could not perform the FSTs.
He was arrested, brought to KPDHQ and his vehicle impounded. At HQ, he blew an Alcotest at 0.21%, nearly triple the legal limit of 0.08%.
Donnelly was charged with drunken and reckless driving and failing to make repairs and was later released to responsible party.
Back in June, Det. Jordenson Jean was working an unrelated investigation at Shoprite, when the supermarket’s management provided him with video footage of a shoplifting incident that had occurred at their liquor store.
Det. Jean was able to use Shoprite and the town of Kearny’s camera footage to identify the vehicle used by the actors, a Toyota Avalon, as well as who the actors themselves were.
Det. Jean also realized previous shopliftings involved the same suspects on separate dates in June and July.
Det. Jean utilized a Communications Information Order and confirmed the suspects’ locations during the incidents.
Danaisha Fuller, 23, of Newark and Nazir F. Boykins, 27, of Irvington, were both charged with shoplifting and conspiracy. Neither of the two have yet been apprehended, but both were mailed a summons to appear in Hudson County Central Judicial Processing court.
We travel back in time to Jan. 7, when that day, at roughly 9 p.m., a woman reportedly parked her vehicle on Bergen Avenue and was walking toward her residence, when two men approached her and forcefully stole her purse.
During the struggle, they told her not to move, or they would kill her.
Inside the purse was an iPhone, her wallet and its contents, cash, airpods and other important documents.
Det. Jean then initiated an investigation and noted prior to the robbery, a Kia vehicle was following the victim’s car through every turn she took while looking for parking. That vehicle was later also used by the suspects to flee the scene, driving recklessly and overtaking vehicles as they sped toward the Newark-Jersey City Turnpike.
Using camera footage, Jean determined the victim was followed home from her job in Elizabeth.
The victim’s bank cards were used to make purchases at American and Spirit airlines.
Det. Jean identified the vehicle and its license plate and noted a suspect associated with the vehicle has also been of interest to multiple police agencies.
Communications Data Warrants were utilized, as well a multiple rounds of subpoenas. After a lengthy investigation, one of the suspects was identified and confirmed to have taken part in the robbery through their cellular site locations and other investigative means.
Kevin L. Arrieche-Rivero, 25, of College Point, New York, was charged with robbery, conspiracy, making terroristic threats and stalking in August. He remains on the run and an investigation is ongoing.
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.
