Manalapan Twins, Holmdel Male Arrested For Burglary

In the early hours Tuesday, Holmdel Police responded to two reports of burglaries in the northern section of the township, off Centerville Rd., and quickly apprehended three suspects with stolen goods.

Police arrested 18-year old Holmdel High School student, Timothy A. Kegley of Holmdel, and twin brothers Thomas W. Norman and Samuel J. Norman of 108 Michael Lane, Manalapan. The three men were charged with Burglary, Theft, Conspiracy, and Criminal Mischief, police said in a report released this afternoon. 

Maacka Drive

At 1:07 a.m., a Maacka Drive resident reported being awakened from a sound sleep by ringing of her doorbell and then the sound of breaking glass on the ground floor of the back of her residence.  

The resident who was home alone with her child and fearful of a home invasion robbery, told officers she left her bedroom and locked herself in her son’s bedroom for safety and called police.  

With the dispatcher on the line, the resident screamed loudly and tried to make noise by stamping her feet on the floor in an effort to scare off the burglars, who police said used an aluminum baseball bat to break the glass. The back sliding door was broken, but the screen door was intact, so police believe the homeowner’s instinct to alert the burglars that the house was occupied scared off the suspects before they entered the home, said Det. Ed Martinez.

The resident said she saw three subjects run from her yard, get into a mini-van, and leave.  The resident provided a description of the vehicle to the police dispatcher, which was immediately broadcast to responding officers.  

Sunrise Circle

As officers were responding to the first incident, they received an additional call regarding a burglary at a house on Sunrise Circle.  

The male owner said he was awakened from a sound sleep by the sound of breaking glass on the first floor of his residence.  The suspects had tried to gain entry via a double-paned window in the door, but then smashed a window and entered through it instead. When the homeowner went downstairs to investigate, he noticed several lights that were previously off had been turned on and that there was damage to the kitchen window. 

He further discovered his home office had been ransacked.  The resident contacted police at 1:20 a.m. and Cpl. Gerard Burke and Ptl. Andrew Kret responded.  Items from his office later recovered by police included a Blackberry cell phone, a watch, a digital camera and a baseball from a display case signed by a Little League team.

The arrest

Patrol cars rushed to the scene from two directions to find the grey 2004 Chrysler Pacifica, which was seen fleeing the Maacka Drive burglary, and stopped it on Centerville Road.  “The officers converged on the area from Red Coach Run and the area of Maple Leaf, so the suspects, were in essence, cornered in,” said Martinez.

Ptl. Michael Moore, Ptl. Thomas Struble, Sgt. Shawn Bailey and Ptl. Andrew Kret made the stop and arrest at 1:13 a.m.  The vehicle, owned by a relative of the Holmdel suspect, has been impounded.

As to why they did what they did, Martinez said, "One suspect said the only reason he could offer was that he needed money." Martinez said the others two refused to talk. Martinez said the suspects were not deemed under the influence of alcohol or drugs, and were not tested for them.

All three subjects were placed under arrest, transported to headquarters for processing, and subsequently transported to the Monmouth County Correctional Institute, Freehold, NJ, in lieu of bail set at $50,000 each by Judge Mary Casey JMC.

Detectives Edward Martinez and Thomas Foley responded to the scene at 2 a.m. and had been working on the case 12 hours later at police headquarters today.  

With a report of an accident at Manee Place and a subsequent DWI arrest around 3 a.m. last night, there was a lot of paperwork to process.

“It was certainly not a typical Monday night in March,” said Martinez.