Ocean County burglary, jewelry theft leads to arrest - Press of Atlantic City
LACEY TOWNSHIP — Police said they charged a township man with burglary and recovered stolen jewelry after they found him sleeping in his parked vehicle.
Thomas Laffey, 30, of the township's Lanoka Harbor section, was found at 7 a.m. Friday sleeping in his vehicle on Sinclair Avenue in Lanoka Harbor, according to a statement by police.
He was released at the scene without incident, police said. However, Laffey was charged about noon after Berkeley Township police officers located his vehicle in the Baywick Plaza.
Police had been searching for a vehicle following a burglary at 9 a.m. Friday in the vicinity of a home on Roanoke Drive in Forked River. A caller told police a man broke glass of a sliding door and entered the Ranger Drive residence, police said.
The caller also alerted her son, who was able to provide dispatch with a description of the suspect’s vehicle, police said.
Officers responded and searched the area but were unable to locate the man or his vehicle. The homeowner was able to provide a list of items stolen from her home that included a list of jewelry, police said.
Detectives discovered a piece of the missing jewelry in Laffey's vehicle, police said.
Laffey was arrested and charged with the burglary, theft and criminal mischief. He was placed in the Ocean County jail in Toms River to await a bail hearing. The investigation led to the recovery of all the stolen jewelry.
