Well this guy’s a total grinch for sure.
Jose Reyes, 41, of Paterson, has been charged with theft after taking toys from a toy drive donation box located inside of the Lyndhurst Municipal Building, Det. Lt. Vincent Auteri, the Lyndhurst Police Department’s public-information officers said.
According to Auteri:
On Monday, Dec. 16, 2024, at approximately 2 p.m., Reyes was inside the Lyndhurst Municipal Building when Capt. John Mazure, who had been monitoring the building surveillance video at the time, observed a man removing packages from a donation box located inside the foyer of the Lyndhurst Municipal Building, which is also adjacent to the entrance to the Lyndhurst Police Department.
Capt. Mazure was able to track the suspect and observed him enter a Chevy pickup truck before leaving the area. Reyes removed as many as five toys from the donation box.
Det. Nick Abruscato subsequently reviewed surveillance video and immediately recognized the suspect to be Reyes from a prior arrest on Sept. 1, 2024.
Det. Abruscato learned Reyes was expected to return to the municipal building on Dec. 17. Upon his return, Det. Abruscato served Reyes with a complaint summons charging him with theft before he was released with an appearance date in municipal court.
Reyes claimed he would return the toys but as of this date he had yet to do so.
The toys were being collected by the Positive Actions to Conquer Cancer Foundation and set to be given to children battling cancer over the holidays — not to be given to some guy who was already in hot water as it is.
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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.