A State Trooper peers into boxes removed from a pump island attendant’s booth Thursday night. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
State Police shut down access to the Shell station in Red Bank Thursday night, but were quiet on the nature of their investigation.
Unaccompanied by Red Bank police, about a dozen troopers descended on the station at about 9 p.m., blocking driveway access on both the Newman Springs Road and Shrewsbury Avenue sides for more than an hour.
Sergeant Adam Grossman in the NJSP public information office said late Thursday night that he could only disclose that the activity was part of an ongoing investigation and that more information was not immediately available.
Captain Darren McConnell, officer in charge of the borough department, told redbankgreen that he was informed of the raid but did not know what it was about.
One trooper on the scene was seen looking into boxes taken from a pump island attendant’s booth while a gas station employee sat outside the station’s convenience store. Other troopers were seen inside the convenience store.
In March, the station’s owner, Waseem Chaudhary, was ordered to pay current and former employees of 72 New Jersey stations he owns $3 million in back wages and to pony up $91,000 in fines for “repeat and willful” violations of wage laws, the Labor Department said at the time.
