An unidentified employee of a blood-spattered office building prepares to sweep the sidewalk on Mechanic Street as Jack Anderson cleans up glass in the background. (Click to enlarge)

By JOHN T. WARD

The case of the mystery trail of blood along Mechanic Street was quickly solved early Thursday, Red Bank police Captain Darren McConnell tells redbankgreen.

Responding to a report of a possible assault shortly after midnight, police saw an injured man get in a car, which they followed to Riverview Medical Center about a block away.

There, they found Harold Vliet, 24, of Brick Township, bleeding from a foot.

Vliet, who McConnell said was intoxicated, told cops he’d kicked in a window of a store on Wallace Street. They checked that out, and finding nothing, returned to Mechanic Street, where they discovered a smashed window at the former Ashes Cigar Club and a trail of blood on the sidewalk, McConnell said.

Vliet was arrested on a charge of criminal mischief, and released on his own recognizance. He was also treated for a severe laceration to his foot, McConnell said.