PLEASE, Folks. Lock your doors. Lt. James J. Carlucci, Detective Bureau Commander at Montclair PD reports another home was burglarized yesterday, as the residents were sleeping.
Montclair Police are investigating a residential burglary that occurred on Warren Place during the overnight hours on August 28th. Unknown suspect(s) entered the residence through an unlocked back door while the homeowners were asleep and removed a Samsung, 20 inch television from the kitchen area, valued at $ 300.00. The suspect(s) then removed car keys from the kitchen and drove off with the homeowners 1999, Honda Pilot, 4dr, gray in color. Anyone with information is asked to contact Detective Terence Turner at 973-509-4724.
After the jump, a snapshot of the week’s police blotter.
On August 20, at around 12:45 pm, police say a King’s refrigerated delivery van was stolen from the Upper Montclair store parking lot. The driver told police he ducked into the store for about ten minutes, and left personal belongings and keys in the truck with the motor running. When he came out – the truck was gone, and thought someone was playing a joke on him. During the investigation, police say the driver’s credit card was used in Parsippany. The truck turned up this Tuesday in Clifton; there are no suspects.
A homeowner on Warren Place reported a black flower pot worth $80 had been taken from her front porch sometime between August 24 and 25. The pot had a 12″ plant in it.
Montclair Police received two reports of stolen bikes this week:
On August 19 between 3 and 6 p.m., a blue Schwinn bike was taken from the backyard of a Montclair Avenue home. The bike was left unlocked while the bike owner was inside the home visiting a friend.
The same day, between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m., two bikes were stolen from a home on North Fullerton Avenue. A brown DK BMX Cleveland and a red Shogun MT bike were taken from the back of the driveway, where they were left unlocked. Replacement value for the two bikes is $1,000.
On August 18, a Montclair woman came to police headquarters to report fraudulent withdrawals had been made for her Chase bank accounts. The woman was online checking the bank statements, and saw that $5,000 had been deducted from her savings, and $1,500 from her checking account. When she reported the unauthorized withdrawals to the bank, they told her that both withdrawals had been made with slips on August 12, in West Virginia.
On August 18, a Pine Street resident, found his Ford Pick-up covered in white paint, after leaving it parked overnight in the street. There are no suspects.
Why don’t the barista’s just start a crime blotter section and put these reports there? Seeing all these reports of crime make me feel like I am reading a newspaper.
would you rather read about a boy with his finger stuck in a desk? I would not know of these burglaries if not for this site.
would you rather read about a boy with his finger stuck in a desk? I would not know of these burglaries if not for this site.
Hide your personal items with your I.D.
Lock all doors to your house/condo/Apt. at all times, 100% of thethe time. Put your vehicle(s) in your garage(s) IF youhave one! If not, lock them and employ & use a BRAKE CLUB (available at Auto Zone in Blmfd. (Steering wheel clubs can be removed by 14 year olds, in 10 seconds. Brake Clubs can only be removed by YOU!.
Lock first floor windows, when you are not home, and when you go to sleep or take a nap.
Don’t leave chairs or tables in your yard, that can be pushed over under windows. Lock your Garage and it’s doors.
Have a motion detector light, that works properly.
Get a dog that likes to bark !! Train him/her to only take food from family members (if possible).
Maybe, just maybe, if the police officers in this town did something other than harass people driving in their cars for minor infractions or chasing tail whie walking people across the street near the Welmont, maybe they could solve a case. These burglaries have been going on for months. That Jersey City boy has been dead from a hit and run for 6 months. Our police department is here to build revenue for the government by harassing and ticketing everyday working, taxpaying citizens. They are secondarily here to protect us. Our country needs to revise the duties of police officers, moving them from traffic patrol to actual crime prevention and investigation.
The majority of these crimes smack of boredom. I mean, who steals a flower pot or dumps white paint on a truck unless they are seriously at loose ends?
And that is why school should be all-year round OR why kids need more meaningful work at younger ages…
Most kids don’t have the luxury of sleepaway camp or vacation homes on LBI. School is/can be the place where they see their buddies in a structured setting and get reinforcement from adults who care about them. (I know, I know–this isn’t always the case, but you might be surprised by how often it IS.)
Even my own kids, whose summers are like non-stop Disney Land, frankly, are bored and wild right now.
Enforcement is only the tip of the iceberg.
I cannot for the life of me figure out why this town is so expensive to live in. It’s got to be only that NYC never runs out of more people to send out here that’s the only reason why home prices and apartment rents can be so elevated, because it’s definitely not worth it.
Crime, crime and more crime, you have to keep your house like a fortress, it’s not that safe to walk down the street at night, every apartment I’ve been in has been practically falling down around my ears (and for nearly $1500 a month!), it’s not safe to cross the street or ride a bicycle, so many parts of town are treeless, littered, broken concrete eyesores, and breathing the air is like sucking on a tailpipe at least twice every day.
This town is the most expensive slum I’ve ever heard of.
I’m with you, Amandala. But it wasn’t always this way. Sure there was crime but not as bad as it is now. We’ve been through tough times, recessions before but it has never been this bad.
I feel safer in parts of NYC at night than I would walking around Montclair.
While part of Montclair is on the hill and has beautiful views and much of Montclair is tree lined and country looking, remember even in the nicest parts of town we’re only a couple of miles from Newark, the crappiest city in the US.
Is it worth the cost? It depends on what perception you buy into. You can get more for your dollar elsewhere but it won’t necessarily have that “transplanted New Yorker” pedigree.
Maybe someday, when Bloomfield and Glen Ridge have turned into Orange and East Orange, they’ll build a wall around Montclair like Llewellyn Park has.
Why wait? Just include Glen Ridge inside the wall. Bloomfield is already little more than a buffer zone between here and Newark, and clearly it’s an inept one.
Amandala,
I can’t say what I really think of your comment because it would be removed due to the vulgar language I would use.
I lived in Montclair for 4 years (I enjoyed my time there) and recently moved to Bloomfield and I like it much more than Montclair.
When you say, “Bloomfield is already little more than a buffer zone between here and Newark,” it is pretty offensive to me and it shows you have no grasp of the situation. Every police report on this site stems from activity in Montclair. And in reality, most of the crime is coming from East Orange. Bloomfield happens to be more of a “middle class” town but that doesn’t mean it should be looked down on.
See you next tuesday.
EVERY SINGLE TOWN in Essex County has crime. I read a couple of years back, that the towns with the least are: Roseland; Essex Fells and Fairfield,those 3 are about in a tie for the least, followed closely by Millburn, in 2nd.
IF I could afford it, I’d live in Lwellyn Park swection of W.O. You can own & ride a horse on the roadways in there, you can have farm-type animals in there and you can own an antique, classic or special interest car in there, without having license plates on it, nor an inspection sticker on it. If you do not have a “LP” decal on the front bumper of the car, YOU DON’T GET IN, period. You can take a walk, at midnight, and feel perfectly safe. It’s the only place to drop a million (or close to it) for a home in this area. Safety IS standard equipment, there.
It is a dedicated PARK – not a Town. The cost of security & snow plowing is spread-out among property owners.
But, I can’t afford it.
You must be kidding, right? I can get into Lewellyn Park any time of day or night. Believe it or not they are not immune to crime and I wouldn’t let my kids walk the streets there at midnight because I know they are NOT perfectly safe. You don’t really think a fence is keeping them out of harms way, do you? Antique cars without a plate or sticker, farm-type animals (as opposed to farm animals)? This is what you’d pay $1 mil+ for?
I need a drink!
I do not believe what you state in your first sentence.
I did not say “Let me kids walk there at midnight” My “kid” is 25.
No, you pay close to a mil (or more) for a beautiful home in a park-like setting, with
the lowest crime in this county, with it’s own security system, and closed to the general public.
It’s safer because it’s gated, as is Smoke Rise in Kinnelon. Not for everyone but the older I get, I can see the draw. Not sure I would want to live in a gated community, even if I could afford it. I wouldn’t like having to “buzz” my friends and family in when they came to visit.
I’ve said this before: Why don’t the citizens of Montclair have a town hall meeting with the mayor, chief of police, whomever, and talk about these concerns? Why pay such high taxes if you can’t even walk around your own neighborhood when you want to? Makes no sense.
Edison was a true visionary.
Yup, he turned the lights on !
Safety is pretty much an illusion. Bad things can and do happen everywhere. It’s just easier to believe that total safety is attainable in surroundings that are beautiful.
Any one know where all the police cars were headed to tonight about 5.40pm? 7 police cars went speeding down Claremont (3 unmarked ones) all with sirens and lights on.
I have the best automotive security system in the world. It is called a manual transmission.
Well lockarnr,
Fortunately, you are welcome to your opinion and I to mine.
Personally, I have always found Bloomfield to be at its best just a little scarier than Montclair and at its worst just a bit less scary than Newark.
I lived in a part of Montclair that was “scarier” than where i live in bloomfield now. perhaps the towns should be judged on a latitudinal basis.
Bloomfield depends on which end you’re in. The North end is similar to Glen Ridge and Montclair. The South end, by Bloomfield ave, is Newark/East Orange light.
https://www.baristanetnew.wpengine.com/2009/07/warehouse-to-condos_project_an.php
After purchasing The Parkway Lofts, Prism commenced the process to rezone this high-profile industrial complex for high density residential development. The iconic, 365,000-square-foot six-story warehouse, built in 1897 by Westinghouse Electric Company, is located on the Garden State Parkway with extraordinary visibility. Prism identified the opportunity to convert the building to “loft” condominiums using the full 17′ floor-to-floor ceiling heights and heavy floor loads to add a penthouse level and a new intermediate 2nd floor. The result: Prism’s vision and execution will transform this 20-acre site into a distinctive, residential village featuring 700 single-level and loft apartments and condominiums. The partners are preserving many original architectural features of the building including 15′ quilt-panel windows, which accentuate the breathtaking views of New York City to the east and the Watchung Mountains to the west. The new “neighborhood” will contain a pool house, club house, tennis courts, recreation area, walking trails, surface and structured parking. Residents will have immediate access to the Parkway as well as high-speed rail service to New York City via the Watsessing Avenue Rail Station, located less than 100 yards from the development. Prism will begin demolition in 2009, and the entire project is expected to be delivered by 2013.
from the Bloomfield Independent in 2006
https://www.localsource.com/articles/2006/10/04/the_independent_press/news/local/doc45240d34c32f1054793118.txt
BLOOMFIELD, NJ РGeneral Electric’s former factory, sandwiched between Lawrence Street and North Arlington Avenue — and straddling the border of Bloomfield and East Orange — is a testament to Bloomfield’s former industrial heyday.
What was once a thriving factory that employed thousands of workers during the first half of the 20th century has had mixed and eclectic industrial uses for the last 20 years.
But the large and mostly-unused buildings on the site could soon give way to the newest wave of residential development. The 767-unit proposed development on the border of the two municipalities, called “Parkway Lofts,” would include converting the six-story main building into a complex of condominium lofts, then tearing down the rest of the buildings on the 21-acre site, and then constructing in their place mid-rise apartment buildings, townhouses and other residential units spread over the rest of the property.
But the site, formerly a General Electric factory where electronics were manufactured, has shown itself to be in need of environmental remediation throughout its history, even up to the present time. Some of those problems, it appears, are still waiting to be remediated.
*
General Electric and the
southern end of town
The site has been the home of various functions since the factory discontinued its heavy industrial usage back in the 1970s. A medical waste transportation company, Stericycle, has functioned out of one part of the main building, while dry goods storage fills most of the rest of the former factory space. At the same time artists use several of the upper-floor spaces above as studios.
But the site was once an industrial powerhouse, especially during World War II. The GE complex was the site of the manufacturing of air conditioners and water coolers during most of its operation. Originally run by Sprague Electric when the site opened in 1895, it reached its peak production when the main L-shaped brick building still standing today was built in 1918. The site was used until 1959, when GE decided to phase out the site — which it considered outdated — and moved its production center south to Texas.
Stericycle entered the building in 2001, and has since increased its daily bulk transportation of medical waste from 25 to 50 tons of medical waste which is collected from local sources and transported in trucks to disposal sites as far as Pennsylvania, Virginia and Maryland.
Since then, the property changed hands several times, being sold to YAD Realty of Brooklyn in 2003 for $11.37 million, and then switched to the dedicated GP Bloomfield, LLC, a company under the auspices of Prism Capital Partners.
A toxic history
Because of its history, the site falls under Industrial Sites Recovery Act, or ISRA, status. There have been several incidents and tests that have indicated that pollution problems on Lawrence Street persist, even decades after the closing of the factory.
In July of 1999, there were leaks detected in several underground storage tanks on the site. Three 25,000 gallon fuel oil tanks were replaced and a fourth was abandoned on-site after highly-elevated levels of petroleum hydrocarbons were detected; there were also elevated levels of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, or PAH’s, a group of contaminants that are known to cause cancer and to affect reproduction in laboratory mice. Another oil spill also occurred from a transformer malfunction three years later, in 2002.
However, there have been other, more serious spills of volatile organic compounds found at the site. On March 31, 2004, an unknown liquid containing at least one kind of carbon tetrachloride was released into the ground; those family of substances are also proven carcinogens, and can cause damage to the liver, kidneys, or central nervous system.
The Nutley Haz-Mat squad responded to a smoke and chemical combustion situation in August of 2001, when an oil tank began smoking after nearby clay had been added to the petroleum compounds there.
In 2004, Stericycle acquired a reading of radioactive material in its waste, which was later determined to be from an doctor’s office that used X-rays.
But some of the lingering, long-term contamination has been blamed on the runoff from other, adjacent industrial sites. In December of 2001, chlorinated and volatile organic compounds were detected in the ground water monitoring wells on the General Electric site. However, the property owners subsequently claimed that the contamination was mostly due to ground water flow from the Westinghouse site to the northeast — a site known to have uranium and tricholoethylene, or TCE, contamination among other substances, and which has natural seepage toward Lawrence Street due to underground strata of bedrock and its naturally higher elevation. However, the samples from General Electric proved to show fundamentally different results from those of Westinghouse, including the elevated levels of extra chemicals including variations of 1,1 -dicholorethene, or DCE, 1,1 Рdicholoethane, known as DCA, 1,1,1 Рtricholoethane, or TCA, and tetrachloroethylene, or PCE. All are in the same family of chemicals as TCE, known for their long-term health hazards. Most of these compounds derive from TCE, a commonly-found industrial solvent on many brownfields and a majority of EPA Superfund sites nationwide.
Cleanup before buildup
However, the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection sent an ISRA “no further action” letter to the developer in December of 2004. That “NFA” letter stipulates that, according to the testimony and environmental findings of YAD Realty, the DEP can generate no lawsuits on part of the property according to the condition of the contaminants on the site.
Gene Diaz of Prism Capital Partners said that the ground water issue was being handled in accordance with authorities.
“We are aware that there is generally an area-wide ground water issue,” he said. “From our review, it doesn’t appear to be significant, however.”
Diaz said that the DEP had reviewed the issue, and had deemed the ground water to not be a significant environmental issue. In fact, the only significant remediation that would be necessary on the part of the developer would be cleaning up the PAH’s from boiler construction on the East Orange side of the property. He said that, otherwise, he was confident that the site would receive a classification exemption area, or CEA, status as the project progresses.
The Parkway Lofts plans are currently being held up at the East Orange Zoning Board of Adjustment. Over the course of months and multiple meetings, the application for use variances has been deferred consistently.
However, East Orange Director of Planning James Slaughter said that the variances are likely to be decided at the next special meeting of the board on Oct. 11. He also said that evaluations of the environmental nature of the project, including ground water testing, would be included in the next phase of approvals, likely a site plan approval.
“They wouldn’t be bringing those studies in at this stage; they’ve only brought documents in terms of the planning and the traffic studies so far,” Slaughter said.
Big Brother is watching…
I state that this site is getting boring and my post got deleted.
I’m still bored.
Any one know where all the police cars were headed to tonight about 5.40pm? 7 police cars went speeding down Claremont (3 unmarked ones) all with sirens and lights on.
Gas station on Claremont was held up by man with a gun.
I find most of the information here usful or entertaining too PKG. I guess I am really just expressing my frustration with the seeming “expansion” of crime in Montclair; In terms of both type and location.
I look at Montclair as a type of testing ground or barrier to “keep the peace” between the urbanites and suburbanites. The high taxes, diversity, amenities, etc, present valuable do’s and dont’s for some of the other Essex county towns striving to survive the change (and constants) that go with living in this region. I like when the lessons come from good things….diversity and amenities; not so much the bad – crime and high taxes.