Crime & Safety

Woodbridge Center Robber May Not Have Been Acting Alone

The gunman who held up of an Express store in the mall Wednesday evening may have had an accomplice who drove him to rob a GameStop store in neighboring Perth Amboy.


The armed suspect yesterday may not have been working alone.

Police theorize that because the same robber held up a GameStop store in Perth Amboy - more than four miles away and in less than 20 minutes - that an accomplice may have been waiting for him as a driver in a car outside the mall.

"It seems pretty quick," said Captain Roy Hoppock for the gunman to have made it from inside the mall, to a car, then down busy Route 9 at rush hour, and to the GameStop store on Convery Boulevard at about 5:45 pm.

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It was the . On March 8, a shoplifter escaping from an off-duty Woodbridge policeman ran into and took an elderly shopper hostage at knifepoint.

The officer, Edward Barrett Jr., after warning the thug to drop his knife, shot and killed the hostage taker, Andres Garcia of Paterson. The victim escaped injured, and Barrett has been for his actions.

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No one at saw the gunman make his escape after the Express store robbery.

No one at GameStop was talking this morning, either, about whether an accomplice or vehicle was involved in the robbery. The store's day manager was angry because a newspaper had interviewed the 22-year-old night manager in detail, and printed the clerk's full name.

"We're not talking to the media," he said.

The fear is that the GameStop night manager might be put at risk because the gunman is still at large.

At approximately 5:25 pm, a suspect walked into Express, a fashion clothing store, in the lower level of Sears wing of the mall, and went to the dressing room to try on clothing, a Woodbridge police report said.

As the store manager and the customer walked to the front of the store, the customer opened a black backpack and showed the manager a black and silver gun he did not remove from the bag.

The Express robbery netted the crook approximately $400 in cash and coins, while the GameStop heist got him between $400 and $700.

After the second robbery, Perth Amboy police said the suspect left in the direction of Industrial Avenue. Neither the GameStop night manager nor anyone at Woodbridge Center was injured in either holdup.

The suspect was described by victims in the Woodbridge police statement as Hispanic, approximately 5 ft. 8 in. tall, and weighing about 150 lbs.

Woodbridge police ask that anyone with information on either crime call Lt. Todd Kutcher at 732-602-7385 or Officer Lukasz Pepkowski at 732-602-7396.


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