By JOHN T. WARD
A Middlesex County man who injured his leg when he was struck by a moving train in Red Bank on Sunday has been charged with a theft that occurred earlier that day at the Little Silver train station, police said Wednesday.
Oluwatomiwa Adewusi, 19, of the Avenel section of Woodbridge, is alleged to have been caught on surveillance tape stealing a laptop computer from the Little Silver station, said police Chief Dan Shaffery.
A short while later, Adewusi slipped and fell on the northbound platform of the Red Bank station. New Jersey Transit officials said Sunday that one of his legs came into contact with the inbound 6:16 a.m. train to New York, and that he suffered a broken leg.
According to Shaffery, surveillance video footage showed a subject enter the closed Little Silver stationhouse shortly after a deliveryperson made a delivery. The footage showed the thief taking the computer along with a drink and chips, and a still photograph was circulated to area police departments with an attempt to identify the suspect, he said.
A short while later, Red Bank police, responding to the call at the borough station, one stop north of Little Silver’s, identified the accident victim as the suspect, Shaffery said.
The laptop was recovered in the area of the platform where Adewusi fell and was returned to its owner, with minor damage, he said.
Adewusi was charged with the burglary and theft, and was served with the complaints at Jersey Shore Medical Center in Neptune, where he was taken for treatment of his injuries.
Little Silver Detective Greg Oliva and Sergeant Paul Halpin conducted the investigation.