The Lyndhurst Police Department was able turn a bah-hum-bug Christmastime experience for a township resident into a story with a much happier ending.
According to the Lyndhurst PD’s Public Information Officer Capt. Paul Haggerty:
On Sunday, Dec. 21, 2025, Officer Salvatore Wartel initiated an investigation reported by a Stuyvesant Avenue resident who reported a package had been stolen on Wednesday, Dec. 17, 2025 at approximately 3:47 p.m. The victim’s neighbor’s home surveillance captured the incident, which depicted a dark-skinned man wearing a red hooded sweatshirt, black pants, over-ear headphones and a black winter hat approach their residence and place a package on their doorstep.
The video then depicts the suspect walking to the house directly to the north of the neighbor’s and removing their three packages that were previously delivered and loading them into the rear cargo area of a white four-door sedan. The packages, whose contents contained two articles of clothing and a basketball, were valued at $125.
Det. Michael Giangeruso was assigned the case, and after sharing the details of the incident with law enforcement partners through a confidential digital law-enforcement bulletin-sharing network, Agent Dimitry Mazur, of the Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office, contacted Det. Giangeruso and provided hm with a plate number of the suspect vehicle using an automated license plate reading database.
The registered owner of the vehicle appeared to have matched the physical appearance of the suspect displayed on the surveillance footage.
Next, Bergen County Sheriff’s Officer Nicholas Haggerty contacted Giangeruso and positivity identified the suspect, Edwin Monterocueto, as a result of a previous unrelated law-enforcement encounter with him.
On Friday, Jan. 9, 2026 at 12:25 p.m., Monterocueto responded to police headquarters to turn himself in after being previously contacted by Giangeruso to do so on both Jan. 2 and 5.
Monterocueto was charged with package theft and released on a complaint summons, pending his appearance in the Bergen County Central Judicial Processing Court, Hackensack.
Chief Richard L. Jarvis Jr. would like to thank the Bergen County Prosecutor’s and sheriff’s officers for their assistance in quickly identifying Monterocueto and assisting the Lyndhurst PD in closing out another pre-holiday crime committed in our community.
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Kevin A. Canessa Jr. is the editor of and broadcaster at The Observer, an organization he has served since 2006. He is responsible for the editorial content of the newspaper and website, the production of the e-Newspaper, writing several stories per week (including the weekly editorial), conducting live broadcasts on social media channels such as YouTube, Facebook, and X, including a weekly recap of the news — and much more behind the scenes. Between 2006 and 2008, he introduced the newspaper to its first-ever blog — which included podcasts, audio and video. Originally from Jersey City, Kevin lived in Kearny until 2004, lived in Port St. Lucie. Florida, for four years until February 2016 and in March of that year, he moved back to Kearny to return to The Observer full time. Click Here to send Kevin an email.