Notes from the KPD blotter

June 26 

On patrol in South Kearny at 3 a.m., Sgt. Jack Corbett came upon a 2005 Mazda sitting in Fish House Road. With Officer Joe Martin as back-up, he approached the driver, Piero Vecco, 31, of Elizabeth, and asked for his license.

Vecco reportedly handed the officer a $20 bill and an empty 24-oz. can of Budweiser (“something often confused with your driver’s license,” said Chief John Dowie). Vecco then started to drive away, police said.

The officers managed to put the Mazda in park and turn it off. Vecco, who police said had a hard time standing, was taken to headquarters, given an Alcotest and was issued summonses for DWI, being an unlicensed driver and having an open container of alcohol in a motor vehicle. And he got his $20 back.

• • •

At 3:30 p.m., at Passaic and Bergen Aves., Officer Daniel Esteves observed a 2002 Dodge pickup bearing an improperly mounted license plate and a rejected-inspection sticker. Stopping the truck, police said, he found that driver Carlos Paz, 30, of Linden, had a suspended license and a $120 traffic warrant from Union Township. He was taken to HQ and given summonses for the MV violations.

June 28 

Officer Jordenson Jean, patrolling at Davis and Garfield Aves. at 6 p.m., took into custody Thomas Granato, 58, of Kearny, whom he knew to be wanted on a $10,000-bail Kearny warrant for allegedly calling in a false alarm at a Davis Ave. apartment building May 24. Granato was charged on that warrant and remanded to the Hudson County Jail.

June 30 

Sgt. Charles Smith and Officer Luis Moran responded to a 4:30 p.m. report of employee theft at a business on the 800 block of Kearny Ave. Police said the proprietor stated that Joshua Bill, 33, of Belford, had attempted to leave the premises with cell phones hidden in a backpack.

July 1 

At 11 a.m., Sgt. Paul Bershefski and Officer Jose Canela were called to a lot on the 1000 block of Harrison Ave. on the report of an intruder possibly removing tools from parked vehicles. Taken into custody was Robert Shimko, 62, of Fords, who was allegedly in possession of miscellaneous items, including an air gun and a drive shaft. He was charged with receiving stolen property. Det. John Plaugic was conducting a follow-up investigation.

– Karen Zautyk 

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