Police Blotter: Middletown Couple Accused of Burglarizing Hotel Room
A loaded handgun was among the items allegedly taken on Nov. 4.
The following information was released by the Hazlet Police Dept. and the Monmouth County prosecutor's office. An arrest does not indicate a conviction.
Nov. 4: On Sunday night around 11:30 p.m., Hazlet Police arrested two Middletown residents at the Best Western on Route 35 in Hazlet for allegedly stealing items from the room of two men from Lebanon, Va., employees of a tree cutting service, who had left their door ajar.
Richard M. Quinn, 28 and Alexis Bruno, 23, both of Middlewood Road in Middletown, are accused of taking personal property from one hotel guest valued at $619, which included a loaded .22 caliber handgun. They also stand accused of taking a $250 iPod belonging to the other hotel guest.
According to the police report, Bruno allegedly took the items from the room while Quinn stood guard in the hallway.
When officers arrived, they said they saw the handgun tucked in Bruno's belt.
Quinn and Bruno were charged with burglary, conspiracy and theft. Bruno was additionally charged with unlawful possession of a handgun.
Charges may still be pending against the Virginia man for possession of the loaded handgun, said Hazlet Det. Charles McBride.
Both were taken to county jail and held on $20,000 bail, set by Judge Michael D. Pugliese, which they both posted. They were scheduled to return to court on Nov. 12.
Nov. 9: Nicolle S. Manso of Carr Avenue in Keansburg was arrested by Middletown Police and charged with stealing a $500 Apple iPad and a purse valued at $250. Manso was released on bail, set at $5,000, by Judge Richard B. Thompson.
Nov. 10: Andrew E. Schacht of Frances Place in Keansburg was arrested by Middletown Police and charged with burglarizing several locked cars in the township. Schacht was released on $5,000 bail.
JerseyBoy
8:29 am on Thursday, November 15, 2012
The disturbing thing to me is that 2 men from out of state come to NJ with loaded guns and leave them laying in an unlocked hotel room, is this not as serious a crime?
NJarhead
8:51 am on Thursday, November 15, 2012
That's because you're from NJ and know nothing of guns. Yes, its probably a crime. Again, NJ.
marylou
9:53 am on Thursday, November 15, 2012
NJarhead,you have no problem with this man leaving a gun in an unlocked hotel room?While it's true hat this guy didn't have a gun permit in NJ,if he had locked it up and then locked the hotel room,he probably wouldn't have gotten caught.I'm not sure how gun laws work,but if he had a permit to carry in VA,would that be valid in other right to carry states?
NJarhead
10:10 am on Thursday, November 15, 2012
I never said he was right to leave unlocked/unsecured. But I'm not the type to blame the victim. I have serious doubts about NJ accepting anyone elses carry permits. NJ's gun laws are probably the most strict, the toughest to understand and the most difficult to find solid information on. So on the one hand, we may read that the gun owner will be charged with something. But on the other hand, in his mind, he probably did nothing wrong by Virginia Law (what he knows). The criminals, no matter which state you're in of 50, are the ones to blame here. I guess you have no problem with what they did?
marylou
10:22 am on Thursday, November 15, 2012
NJarhead.Let me rephrase.Say that the man had a permit to carry in VA,and he drove to or through another right to carry state.Would thes other state(s) recognize his VA permit?A responsible gun owner would know this,and would also be smart enough to know not to leave his gun unsecure in a hotle room,even if he locked the door.
NJarhead
10:27 am on Thursday, November 15, 2012
Marylou, are YOU a responsible gun owner? I'm not so sure where the line is between being a "responsible gun owner" and knowing what the laws in other states are. You seem to think the latter is paramount and while that knowledge may prevent the otherwise law abiding citizen from unknowingly commiting a crime, I am not of the belief that it automatically makes him or her a criminal. Or even an irresponsible gun owner. Unlike Dumb and Dumber over here who thought it'd be a good idea to break into a hotel room. You seem to want to deflect the attention to these guys who came up to help out NJ while not condemning, for one second, the crime committed AGAINST THEM.
NJarhead
10:27 am on Thursday, November 15, 2012
I guess what I'm trying to say is, I'm not going to entertain you any further with this conversation. Have a nice day.
marylou
11:02 am on Thursday, November 15, 2012
I'm soory you feel that way.I don't own a gun.If I did,I would lock it up and lock my house.That's what I do with my other valuables.If I had a permit to carry in VA,I would not assume that it was legal to carry the gun into other states.If these 2 burglars hadn't been caught,they could have used the weapon to commit another crime or sold it to another criminal.Even if he didn't check the laws of the states he would be traveling to or staying,he should have locked it up.Dumb and Dumber didn't have to break in.The door was left open.
NJarhead
11:11 am on Thursday, November 15, 2012
There sure was a lot of "if" in those comments. Marylou, no offense to you, but in my experience the folks who are most afraid of guns and have the toughest stance on them, are those who are unfamiliar with and uneducated about them. Most of your points are valid, but you have an obvious issue with guns and I expect to see your comments below any headline that may contain the word "gun" in it, in the future. Our friends from Virgina should have been more careful, but the story here is about criminals from NJ and victims from Virginia. period. We'll have to wait and see if there's a follow up article about charges brought against the men from Virginia and I'm sure you can kick off the venomous conversation you seek at that point.
marylou
12:13 pm on Thursday, November 15, 2012
Oh,for heaven's sake.NJarhead.Venomous???I'm not saying I'm against law abiding citizens owning guns,but with that right comes some responsibility.If you own a gun,you don't leave it laying around for someone,perhaps a criminal,to pick it up.As I stated before,if this man had locked the gun in an in-room safe or lhis own gun safe AND locked the room,the fact that he brought the gun illegally would no even be an issue.No one would even know about it.
JerseyBoy
10:48 am on Saturday, November 17, 2012
I live in NJ, but grew up with guns around, hunting guns, ones that have a reason and a purpose besides social violence like hand guns.
Jen
8:56 am on Thursday, November 15, 2012
Lots of people from the south carry guns on them at all times esp in job fields where they do alot of driving like a truck driver
Tammy Ronan
8:58 am on Thursday, November 15, 2012
Why is that strange? Because NJ doesn't allow us to exercise our 2nd Ammendment rights? Those boys grew up around guns and have respect for them. They came here into uncertain circumstances to help knowing full well the dangers of disastrous circumstances. I don't blame them one bit for wanting to protect themselves against the very circumstances that they encountered.
marylou
9:34 am on Thursday, November 15, 2012
Responsible gun owners do not leave them in unlocked hotel rooms or in any other place where they can fall into the wrong hands.This is one way that guns get into the hands of criminals.
JerseyBoy
9:02 am on Friday, November 16, 2012
You're funny, "they wanted to protect themselves", yet leave their door ajar with the loaded weapon they brought to "protect" them inside.
Paula Iskenderian Guglielmo
9:53 am on Thursday, November 15, 2012
This is disturbing on mutliple counts. Dispicable
christine
10:53 am on Thursday, November 15, 2012
I get that leaving a loaded gun in your room unattended is a serious issue BUT maybe he doesnt know our NJ laws..And the bigger picture here is that out of state workers are coming to help NJ in our biggest time of need and now in addition to everything else they have to deal with these two morons breaking in and stealing from them! Way to go you idiots!! Its disgusting that these people have to deal with such stupidity,please do not judge our wonderful state by the actions of these two jerkoffs!!
marylou
12:17 pm on Thursday, November 15, 2012
He may not know our laws,but common sense tells you that you don't leave a loaded,or even unloaded gun in an unlocked hotel room.I don't know if this hotel has in-room safes,but he could have locked the gun up in his own lock box and locked th door to the room.Not only is a gun dangerous in the wrong hand,but it's valuable,probably worth as much as the IPod.
Tammy Ronan
4:14 pm on Thursday, November 15, 2012
The Virginia boy loses points big time for being irresponsible with his weapon, especially being out of state but let's not lose sight of the real crime, the two that rob and steal.
bkn
4:43 pm on Thursday, November 15, 2012
He should have locked the door. He is from the south and in a hurricane ridden different enviroment so I don't blame him for bringing it. I grew up in Jersey so I know the laws but here in the south we carry. I keep one in the car at all times and when I travel I do bring it into hotels. He should have locked the door but he is not the criminal here the thieves are.
marylou
5:24 pm on Thursday, November 15, 2012
Then,perhaps you can answer the question I asked NJarhead,who either didn't know the answer or just assumed that's I'm against anyone owning guns.If you have a permit to carry in 1 state,are you legally allowed to carry your weapon in another state?NJ obviously has a problem with it.Wouldn't it have made sense for him to find out what our laws are before he came here?He could lose his right to carry in VA if he's convicted of a crime in NJ,no?
NJarhead
6:55 am on Friday, November 16, 2012
Marylou, I had this discussion recently with a friend of mine who is a police officer in NJ. NJ does not recognize carry permits from other states (unless maybe there are certain circumstances, but that wasn't discussed and I can't speak intelligently on that). Only a few states honor CP's from other states and I'm not positive which those are, but an educated guess would be FL, TX, VT, NH, WV and maybe a few midwestern states.
NJarhead
6:56 am on Friday, November 16, 2012
Also, if you want to google "NJ Gun Laws" and sift through all the BS and share with us what you find, I would be really interested in seeing what you find out. I gave up on it a few years ago, but I'm a little intrigued myself.
bkn
4:45 pm on Thursday, November 15, 2012
NJ needs to honor out of sate cc permits and it would not have been left in his room but on his hip in a holster!
marylou
5:18 pm on Thursday, November 15, 2012
...or locked it up! I'm not expert on guns,but do know that they make gun safes and lock boxes.I'm not sure about this particular hotel,but many hotels have safes in their rooms.And for heaven's sake,lock the darn door.
NJarhead
9:02 am on Friday, November 16, 2012
How are they so sure the door was left "ajar?" Is that what the crooks told them? That makes absolutely no sense at all.
marylou
11:07 am on Friday, November 16, 2012
Perhape there was no sign of forced entry.Maybe the occuYpant of the room admitted to the police that he failed to close and/or lock the door beacuse he was just going down the hall for ice,etc."
NJarhead
11:14 am on Friday, November 16, 2012
That would be the only thing that would make sense. That would also indicate that Dumb and Dumber have quite the set of kiwi's as it takes all of a minute to get ice. haha. Who knows...
NJarhead
9:06 am on Friday, November 16, 2012
For the record: Wikipedia, last I checked, was not considered a credible source of information, so be careful what you read there. That said, the references they cite, are usually where you want to go to for any verification. Just an FYI...
Cherylyn Mac
8:02 am on Tuesday, January 8, 2013
I live in Florida and have a concealed weapons permit for years here and when you apply for the permit you are made aware that before you travel to a state that it is your responisbility to find out if that state honors your permit. I once lived in NJ and can assure you that they do not honor Florida's permits. With the economy being as it is and home invasions being what they are; I can assure you that if I were staying in a hotel room I would NEVER lock my weapon in a safe or other item that would take time to get to....violence take just a second to happen. I applaud the the men to have enough sense to realize that a crime was taking place and to get help from the local police....this is as it should be. You can be assured that men coming from the south would not just have one gun on their person; there would also be one in their vehicle and they could have easily turned a simple robbery into something more if they were not educated in the ways of being a gun owner. As mentioned before; this is about two men trying to take something from someone that did not belong to them, not to play kangeroo court on a victum
JerseyBoy
8:56 am on Tuesday, January 8, 2013
Knowing you live in Florida now, makes me feel much safer living in NJ. Although, I've never heard the song "kangeroo court" especially played on a "victum".
NJarhead
8:59 am on Tuesday, January 8, 2013
@JerseyBoy. Why, are you one of those who would blame the homeowner if they shot an intruder?