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Two New Jersey men were on Feb. 5 charged for burglary and theft in connection with a January break-in and theft from a grocery store in Edison. Indian Grocery Outlet owner Sunilkumar V. Patel told police that his business was burglarized between the night of Jan. 10 and the morning of Jan. 11, and that $76,865 awaiting a bank deposit was stolen.
Detectives from the police Special Operations Group arrested Fausto Ariza Pedraza, 50, of Rahway, and Tito Venegas, 40, of Linden, on Jan. 23 in connection with the burglary.
Over the next two weeks, Detective Steve Todd examined crime-scene evidence and interviewed store employees, leading to the arrest of Pedraza and Venegas, and to the recovery of the stolen money, nj.com reported. Piscataway Municipal Court Judge Dennis Flackelman set bail for Pedraza and Venegas at $10,000 each.
“It’s extraordinary for police, here or anywhere, to recover such a large amount of money two weeks after a crime,” Police Chief Thomas Bryan said in a press release. “Diligent police work by our detectives led to these arrests and enabled us to return that money to one of our local small-business owners.”
The robbery comes shortly after a rash of five home invasions in which Indian- American households in Middlesex County were broken-in by armed, masked intruders.
