NEW JERSEY COMPUTER THIEF CAUGHT STEALING COMPUTERS FROM OFFICE Police accuse man of carting away office computers:

Police accuse man of carting away office computers
Saturday, December 09, 2006
BY NYIER ABDOU
Star-Ledger Staff

A Jersey City man successfully burglarized more than a dozen offices in north and central New Jersey -- in plain sight of office workers -- by masquerading as an office employee, police said.

Rogelio Young, 40, also known as Shakur Lamont Young, was arrested Dec. 7 after police followed him to a Woodbridge office complex on Route 1 and observed him leave unnoticed pulling a trolley loaded up with three desktop computers and a laptop, police said."

An investigation by the Somerset County Prosecutor's Office Burglary Task Force, in cooperation with authorities in Bergen, Hudson and Middlesex Counties, determined Young was able to make off with laptops and other computer and electrical equipment from at least 15 office complexes before he was caught Thursday, authorities said.

A statement by Somerset County Prosecutor Wayne Forrest said Young appeared uniquely able to "blend in" with office surroundings, arousing no suspicion among employees. Dressed in "casual business attire," and toting a large shoulder bag, Young would stroll into buildings through unlocked doors or slip in with employees entering or leaving the building, police said.

In the last four months, Young is believed to have robbed businesses in Bernards Township, Bedminster, Woodbridge, South Plainfield, Piscataway, Paramus and River Edge, police said.

Investigators were alerted to a string of office burglaries in the northern part of Somerset County earlier this year and found the suspect appeared to be the same man -- an older-looking African-American man of stocky build always dressed tastefully in a collared shirt or sweater vest and wearing a hat, police said.

The man, driving a maroon Chevy SUV with Indiana license plates, entered the buildings in the evening or early morning hours and helped himself to laptops, projectors and other electronics, police said.

Among the numerous companies burglarized under these circumstances were Magnolia Broadband Inc. on Hills Drive in Bedminster, where the suspect absconded with seven laptops and two projectors worth an estimated $14,000 on Sept. 22, and High Point Solutions, on Independence Boulevard in Warren Township, where the burglar walked out with a flat-screen TV and Dell laptop together worth about $4,500, police said.

A rash of Somerset burglaries prompted Bedminster police to issue a statewide advisory that led to reports from eight police departments in Bergen and Middlesex Counties of similar burglaries, police said.

A search of Young's Jersey City home later revealed stolen computers, cameras, cell phones and laptop computer cases, police said.

Young was remanded to Somerset County Jail, where he remained last night on $50,000 bail with a 10 percent option, police said.