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FBI nabs Pennsylvania siblings in Paramus store safe crackings

YOU READ IT HERE FIRST: FBI agents this morning arrested two Pennsylvania brothers who they said stole $90,000 in cash in a pair of safe-cracking operations at Paramus stores last year that took up to nine hours to complete.

Photo Credit: Cliffview Pilot File Photo

The bandits tried another Paramus break-in on Christmas Day but were interrupted by police and vanished after a brief chase.

Eliezer and Jose Medina also took $203,000 from a store safe they cracked in Pennsauken, boosting the overall haul to more than $300,000 that was transported across state lines to Lancaster, PA, U.S. Attorney Paul S. Fishman said this afternoon.

And they were caught, in part, because of a Paramus police officer’s vigilance.

“The burglaries followed the same general pattern, including advance surveillance of the stores, disabling of the stores’ alarm systems, drilling a small hole in the emergency exit door to gain access to the store, and the use of pry- bars and vertical cuts to gain access to the stores’ safes,” Fishman said.

Two or three associates usually cased a large commercial store as their target, he said.

For instance, on Nov. 2, 2013, 36-year-old Eliezer Medina was seen on surveillance video entering one of the Paramus stores with another man, an FBI complaint on file in U.S. District Court in Newark says.

It recorded them “as they walked through the store together, not appearing to be shopping for any particular item,” the complaint says.

“First, they walked up to the panel where the store alarm system was housed and held up a phone as if to take a picture of the alarm system,” it says. “Video surveillance then showed the two men standing for some time behind the security desk, where they would have been able to view the television screens that displayed the viewpoints of the store’s various security cameras.”

At 1:25 a.m. the next day, surveillance video shows two men in dark clothing, masks and gloves entering the safe room. One of them had a dark-colored backpack and a pry-bar with yellow paint or coating that he used to pry open the door to get in.

Once inside, the burglars “made a vertical cut in the safe door with an electric saw to force it open,” the complaint says.

They left at 9:15 a.m. with $40,000 in cash that had been stolen from the store’s safe.

In some cases, crew members disabled alarm systems while casing the stores — placing magnets over the sensors on the emergency exit door or putting tape over the surveillance cameras, for instance.

Later on, they’d show up in a minivan and “break into the store through its emergency exit door by first drilling a small hole in the door and then using crowbars and other various burglar tools to force open the door’s push-bar.

“Depending on the configuration of the store’s alarm system, they also have been known to use an electric saw to slice the emergency exit door in two and to enter the store through the bottom portion of the door,” the complaint says.

They chose days or nights when the stores were closed to give them enough time to get what they wanted and get away, federal authorities said.

It was Sunday, Nov. 24, when they hit the second Paramus store, drilling a small hole in the center of a rear emergency exit door, placing magnets on it to close the electrical circuits and prevent the alarm from being triggered before forcing their way in, investigators said.

The burglars started around 5:30 a.m. and weren’t through until 2:30 p.m., the complaint says.

They cracked two safes that day, taking $50,000, it says.

Paramus police checking out another burglary nearby took note of a blue Chrysler Town & Country minivan with a Pennsylvania license plate parked behind the store.

The registration came back to the Medina brothers’ mother.

A similar break-in occured on Dec. 1 in Cleona, PA, netting the thieves $32,000, the FBI complaint says.

Then came a return to Paramus and the failed Christmas Day 2013 attempt.

The Medinas joined Christmas Eve shoppers in the store, then made their way to the back, where they moved a cart of items in front of a security camera, the FBI said.

Then, around 3:30 a.m. Christmas morning, a resident reported seeing people trying to break in to the store.

An officer “drove head-on into the path of a vehicle that appeared to be a dark blue Chrysler Town & Country minivan leaving the area of [the store],” the complaint says. “Video footage from the officer’s dashboard camera shows that the van was occupied by three males, and that the van appeared to have two stickers on the driver’s side of the front windshield and no front license plate, both of which [indicated] that the vehicle was registered in Pennsylvania.”

It was the same one an officer had spotted earlier, the FBI said.

The bandits eluded police, who later found a small hole in the center of the rear emergency exit door.

“A horizontal cut was made across the door at the level of the hole, creating a point of entry below the push-bar of the door,” the FBI complaint says. “Law enforcement officers also found that a piece of opaque tape had been placed over the motion sensor located above the inside of the rear emergency exit door.

“Surveillance cameras located outside of the safe room showed a man, dressed in dark clothing with a mask and gloves, and carrying a dark-colored backpack, attempting to gain entry into the safe room using a yellow-coated pry-bar,” it adds. “Surveillance videos also show that the burglar abruptly stopped prying the door to the safe room at approximately the same time that law enforcement officers were reporting to [the store].”

In the failed attempt, as well as the successful break-ins and the chase, Eliezer Medina’s cell phone was traced nearby, the FBI said.

Subsequent burglaries in Pennsauken and Pennsylvania provided more evidence for investigators — including a white Nissan Quest with an EZ-Pass transponder registered to Eliezer Medina that crossed from New Jersey into Pennsylvania over the Tacony-Palmyra Bridge, the government said.

Around 2 a.m. of this past Aug. 25, investigators watching Eliezer Medina’s house in Ronks, PA, spotted a black Chrysler Town & Country minivan registered to his 38-year-old brother in the driveway.

The white Nissan Quest pulled in an hour or so later, driven by Eliezer Medina’s domestic partner, the complaint says.

Three men in dark clothing came out, unloaded bags from the Nissan and brought them into the house, it says.

Eliezer Medina is charged with one count of conspiry and three counts of knowingly transporting stolen goods in interstate commerce.

Jose Medina is charged with one count of conspiracy and one count of knowingly transporting stolen goods in interstate commerce.

Both were due in federal court in Newark this afternoon.

Fishman credited special agents of the FBI, the N.J. State Police and the Paramus, Wayne and Lancaster police departments, among others.

The government is represented by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Melissa Wangenheim and Barry Kamar of the General Crimes Unit in Newark.

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