Bergen County Prosecutor John L. Molinelli announced today the arrests of Jose L. Cardona, 30, of Woodland Park and Woodrow Garcia Jr., 21, also of Woodland Park, in relation to a series of commercial burglaries that took place over a four month period throughout northern New Jersey.
As a result of the ongoing investigation, Cardona and Garcia Jr. were arrested on Wednesday, September 23, 2015 and charged with multiple counts of burglary and theft following the execution of court authorized search warrants in Woodland Park and Paterson.
In July, a task force was formed in response to a series of commercial burglaries in and around Bergen County. The investigation later revealed that over the course of four months more than two dozen commercial burglaries in Bergen, Passaic and Hudson Counties shared similarities in the manner which they were carried out. For instance, the burglars generally targeted gas stations and auto body repair shops in the early morning hours while the stores were closed.
The perpetrators would gain entry into the establishments by removing the locks utilizing specialized lock picking tools. Once inside, they would steal among other items, diagnostic equipment, cash, and cartons of cigarettes. Task force detectives were able to link Cardona and Garcia Jr. and another individual who is currently still at large to approximately twenty-five commercial burglaries to area businesses in Lodi, Elmwood Park, Saddle Brook, Fair Lawn, Ridgefield, Fort Lee, Rutherford, Glen Rock, Waldwick, South Hackensack, Lyndhurst, Rochelle Park, Ramsey, Palisades Park, Wyckoff, Hawthorne and Kearny.
Cardona was located and arrested without incident at an apartment building located at 540 East 23rd Street, Paterson. Garcia Jr. voluntarily surrendered himself to detectives at the Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office. The search warrants executed by task force detectives yielded suspected proceeds from the commercial burglary spree.
At this time Cardona and Garcia, Jr. are currently lodged in the Bergen County Jail.