By JOHN T. WARD
A Red Bank man was arrested on charges he set three fires in the borough and robbed a Little Silver pharmacy in a 12-hour spree earlier this week.
Anthony Sambogna, 24, was arrested without incident on Branch Avenue in Little Silver Tuesday afternoon, Acting Monmouth County Prosecutor Lori Linskey said in a press release Thursday.
A Fair Haven volunteer firefighter was arrested and charged with arson Saturday, the Monmouth County Prosecutor announced Sunday evening.
Nicholas Joyce, 19, was alleged to have set a fire to a storage shed behind a church Friday afternoon. He then went to the borough firehouse, where he responded to the fire with other volunteers, according to Acting Monmouth County Prosecutor Christopher J. Gramiccioni.
A 70-year-old Red Bank man was indicted for an arson spree in which he’s alleged to have started four fires in less than an hour last July, according to a document released Thursday by the Monmouth County Prosecutor.
Gabriel Ramos, of South Pearl Street, had volunteer firefighters responding to small fires at four addresses in the vicinity of the train station, police Chief Darren McConnell said shortly after the July 11 spree.
A 70-year-old Red Bank man was arrested for an arson spree in which he started four fires in less than an hour last Friday, police alleged.
Gabriel Ramos, of South Pearl Street, had volunteer firefighters responding to small fires at four addresses in the vicinity of the train station, said police Chief Darren McConnell.
The burned hull of the Fiddler at low tide last Thursday. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
The icebound boat that went up in flames in the Navesink River in February has been removed from the waterway off Red Bank’s Maple Cove.
Is an arson charge next?
The charred outline of the Fiddler lies surrounded by ice in the Navesink River off Maple Cove in Red Bank Tuesday morning. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
The owners of the icebound boat that went up in flames in the Navesink River last week say they are “devastated” by the blaze, which they attribute to arson.
“Not much of evidentiary value” remains of the icebound boat that burned on the Navesink off Red Bank early Wednesday, State Police spokeswoman Trooper Irina Spies said Thursday. “It burned to the water line.” Still, an investigation continues, and the agency’s marine unit will look into claims reported by redbankgreen that the Fiddler was the scene of a prior fire after the river froze in late January, she said. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
The Fiddler last month, above, and during Wednesday’s fire, below, as seen from Maple Cove. (Photos by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Did one or more vandals walk several hundred yards out onto the frozen Navesink River in the dead of night – in bitter cold – to torch an icebound boat early Wednesday? Or did the fire start without human assistance?
In the aftermath the predawn blaze that destroyed a vessel dubbed the Fiddler off Red Bank, some redbankgreen readers don’t find the arson scenario such a stretch – because there was another fire on the vessel in the past two weeks, they claim.
By DUSTIN RACIOPPI
Capping a busy week in Middletown, police reported an array of arrests for offenses including hard-drug sales, car break-ins and a slew of St. Patty’s Day disorderlies.
On Tuesday, police, along with the Monmouth County Prosecutor’s Office Narcotics Task Force, wrapped up a three-month investigation and arrested a Passaic Street man for numerous drug offenses, said Detective Lieutenant Steve Dollinger.
Authorities executed a search warrant of the residenceGlenn Muscarella and found more than 220 bags of heroin, cocaine, steroids, syringes and scales used to measure the weight of the drugs for distribution, Dollinger said in a release.
A 31-year-old Middletown man was arrested for setting fire to a Harmony Road home Wednesday. (Photo by Dustin Racioppi; click to enlarge)
By DUSTIN RACIOPPI
After being told he was going to be evicted from his Harmony Road home, a Middletown man lashed out by taking power tools and a match to the place, police said.
Police arrested 31-year-old Christopher Bossick for setting fire to the home at 717 Harmony Road Wednesday afternoon, Detective Lieutenant Steve Dollinger said.
By DUSTIN RACIOPPI
A 28-year-old man was arrested last night after police found him hiding outside a Port Monmouth home with an explosive device, Middletown police said.
Zachary Sullivan, who last lived in Tulsa, Oklahoma, was charged with attempted arson, aggravated assault, possession of a destructive device and causing or risking widespread injury or damage.
Police found him hiding behind a car in the driveway of a Willow Drive residence after receiving a call of a possible prowler in the neighborhood. Sullivan’s clothes were covered in a black substance he told police was motor oil and was going to pour it on the home’s porch as a Halloween prank.
A beach club cabana fire resulted in a brief closure of Route 36 in Sea Bright Wednesday night, according to a report by the political blog MoreMonmouthMusings.
The blaze, at the Driftwood Cabana Club, was being investigated as a possible arson, Councilman Read Murphy says in a video interview shot by blogger Art Gallagher.
Called in as a possible beach bonfire at 10:07p, the fire was “spinning out over the top of the buildings” when borough police arrived, Murphy says. “It turned out it was a cabana, fully involved.”
Red Bank police took four minors into custody Sunday following a fire in the garage of a vacant Bank Street house on Sunday.
In a press release issued this afternoon, police Captain Darren McConnell said the 10:56a blaze was intentionally set.
Volunteer firefighers quickly quashed the blaze, and no structural damage resulted, he said.