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Construction workers aid driver of burning car in Robbinsville
by Ryan Tracy/The TimesThursday November 20, 2008, 7:14 PM
ROBBINSVILLE -- Two construction workers helped push a burning car to the side of the highway Thursday in an incident that was quickly taken over by township police, according to one witness at the scene.
Police said Kazim Ahmed Sr. of Monroe was driving alone on Route 130 just before noon yesterday when his vehicle started to smoke near the intersection of Route 33 and Route 130.
Police responded after receiving four 911 calls about the incident and the Robbinsville Fire Department, located nearby on Route 130, quickly extinguished the fire.
"I yelled out ... 'That car's on fire!'" said a man who identified himself only as Greg, but claimed he was working as an inspector at a construction site in the highway median as the car passed.
Greg said two construction workers, Cahee Wilson and Tim Anderson of the Laborers International Union of North American Local 172, vaulted over the median, helped push the smoking car off the roadway and urged the driver to exit the car just before flames appeared under its hood.
"If we hadn't been working out there, it could have been different," he said.
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Burglars take $31,000 in valuables in two Robbinsville break-ins
by Ryan Tracy/The TimesThursday November 20, 2008, 6:43 PM
ROBBINSVILLE -- Township police are investigating two recent burglaries in which local residents lost about $31,000 worth of property.
In both cases, one or more perpetrators broke a glass window that was part of a front or rear door in order to gain access to a home, according to township police.
The victims of one burglary, at a home on Reed Lane on Nov. 11, lost about $30,000 in valuables, police said. That incident occurred between the hours of 9:30 a.m. and 3:30 p.m.
"They entered the residence by smashing the glass door, ransacked the house, (and) stole about $30,000 (in) valuables," said Detective Peter Golazka of the Robbinsville police.
Reed Lane is part of Town Center, the massive, densely populated suburban development near the township's border with Hamilton.
Golazka said a second burglary occurred on Old York Road with a similar method of entry. The incident occurred between 10 p.m. on Nov. 16 and 7:40 p.m. on Nov. 17.
At that location, police found a front door window smashed and residents reported about $1,000 worth of electronics equipment missing, Golazka said.
Golazka advised residents to be wary of choosing doors with glass windows and to consider having more secure doors installed.
He also said residents should keep burglar alarms activated. The Reed Lane home did have an alarm system, but it was not activated at the time of the burglary, police said.
Another recent burglary occurred in Bordentown Township sometime during the past week, though police said they were not able to pinpoint the exact time because the residents were out of the country.
An exact location was also not immediately available yesterday.
"Entry was made by breaking one of the side glass panels" next to the door, Lt. Norman Hand of the Bordentown Township police said of the incident.
Hand said no electronics were taken from the home, and the residents were still trying to determine what jewelry or other valuables had been stolen.
He also advised caution in tough economic times.
"Burglaries in general will probably increase as people get tight for money," hand said.
School fires investigated in Trenton
by Alex Zdan/The TimesThursday November 20, 2008, 6:18 PM
TRENTON -- Firefighters faced their second and third bathroom fires in a city school in just over 24 hours Thursday, responding twice to Dunn Middle School, fire officials reported.
Students at the school on the 400 block of Dayton Street were ushered outside twice, once just after 11:00 a.m. and again just before 11:45 a.m. after separate fires were set in a girls, then a boys bathroom, fire officials say.
A boys bathroom at Trenton Central High School was damaged Wednesday after a plastic paper towel dispenser was set ablaze. That fire was kept from causing further damage by two staff members manning a fire extinguisher.
Fire officials said the earlier fire Thursday, which was located in a first floor girls bathroom, was a result of a piece of paper that was set alight. The fire self-extinguished and caused no injuries.
The second fire began in the second floor boys bathroom and burned a trash can and plastic liner, officials said. School personnel extinguished it with a fire extinguisher. No injuries were reported, but a small smoke condition was observed on the second floor.
Police said Thursday they were investigating the TCHS fire as an arson, and that the Crime Scene Unit had processed the scene. Fire officials said the police department was contacted to investigate the Dunn Middle fires as well.
Four teens escape as vehicles sink in West Windsor pond
by Michael Ratcliffe/The TimesWednesday November 19, 2008, 10:36 PM
WEST WINDSOR -- Four teenage boys "miraculously" escaped serious injury Wednesday when the two vehicles in which they were traveling veered off Conover Road -- missing a utility pole by about a foot -- and sank out of sight in the frigid water of a pond on the Mercer Oaks East golf course, police and emergency officials said.
The four boys -- all 17-year-old township residents whose names were not released -- were able to get out of the vehicles before they became submerged and were able to swim to shore. Two were treated at the scene for "minor injuries," and all four were sent home with their parents, police said.
Trenton Fire Department SCUBA divers were called out to search the large, 10-foot-deep pond for the vehicles and attach cables to them so they could be pulled from the water by tow trucks.
While the crash remains under investigation by Officers Frank Latorre and Lee Evans, township police Lt. Carl Walsh said "speed and driver inexperience" were certainly factors in the crash.
Trenton Fire Department diver Gary Szabo looks on as a tow truck removes a car from the pond next to the 13th green at the Mercer Oaks East golf course in West Windsor Wednesday. Four teenagers escaped unharmed when two vehicles crashed into the pond.Blaze at Plainsboro loading dock results in an oil spill
by Alex Zdan/The TimesWednesday November 19, 2008, 10:35 PM
PLAINSBORO -- A fire in a hydraulic pump early Wednesday caused an oil leak but no significant damage, police said.
The fire occurred in the pump of a loading dock elevator at Princeton Forrestal Village on the 100 block of Village Boulevard just after 1:30 a.m., police said.
The fire was extinguished without severe damage to the area, but 20 to 25 gallons of hydraulic oil were spilled and needed to be cleaned up, according to police.
Police said that the fire appears accidental.
Two people displaced by Lawrence blaze
by Alex Zdan/The TimesWednesday November 19, 2008, 10:31 PM
LAWRENCE -- A fire that began when a space heater was placed too close to a mattress damaged one side of a two-family home in the 900 block of Lanning Avenue Tuesday evening, fire officials reported.
Slackwood Fire Chief Robert Santello said a front bedroom was damaged by the fire, and smoke and water damage occurred throughout the house. Two residents were displaced by the fire, Santello said. No one was injured.
The blaze, reported about 9:35 p.m., started inside the front bedroom on the second floor of the left side of the 2-1/2-story duplex.
Driver receives summons after his auto overturns in Hopewell
by Alex Zdan/The TimesWednesday November 19, 2008, 10:29 PM
HOPEWELL TOWNSHIP -- Two teens were hurt after the car they were riding in went out of control and overturned Tuesday evening, police reported.
Police said two unidentified township males, the 17-year-old driver and a 16-year-old passenger, were traveling eastbound on Pennington-Titusville Road just after 6 p.m. when the car's passenger-side tires hit the gravel shoulder of the road, the driver attempted to steer back toward the left and lost control of the vehicle.
The car crossed into the westbound lane and went off the roadway, where it hit a drainage ditch. The auto then rolled over and slid along the road for about 150 feet.
3 people arrested during drug search in Hamilton
by Alex Zdan/The TimesWednesday November 19, 2008, 10:27 PM
HAMILTON -- One pound of marijuana and 40 marijuana plants were seized during the execution of a search warrant at a home on the 200 block of Miller Avenue on Monday, police reported.
Michael Kelly, 23, Nicole Inman, 21, and Galen Michael Eppley, 25, were arrested during the search, which police said was the product of a four-week investigation.
Police said psilocybin, or hallucinogenic mushrooms, were being cultivated in 22 glass jars, and loose mushrooms also were found in the home. In addition, $3,000 in cash believed to be proceeds from selling drugs was seized.
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