The Herald News
CLIFTON, N.J. — Bold-patterned pajama pants led to the arrest of a man and a woman wanted in several burglaries in the area.
A woman wearing white pajama pants with red hearts caught the attention of an off-duty deputy fire chief who saw her and a man outside a Phyllis Place home. Deputy Fire Chief Henry Cholewczynski saw the woman and the man trying to break into the home, and saw an SUV parked in front of the home, said Detective Capt. Robert Rowan
Cholewczynski wrote down the plate number and called police. Dispatchers found Bloomfield police were looking for the SUV because it was used in burglaries there, said Rowan.
The SUV was still parked at the house when Clifton Sgt. Harry Van Winkle and Patrolman Thomas Ulikowski responded and waited for backup to surround the home.
Van Winkle and Ulikowski went in through a back door that had been pried open. They found a man carrying a pillowcase filled with jewelry and change and the colorfully dressed woman on the second floor, Rowan said.
The policemen ordered the pair to the ground at gunpoint and arrested them. The man also had jewelry and coins in his pockets and had a lock-blade razor, Rowan said.
During the investigation, police found the back door had been pried open with a screwdriver and a side door’s window was broken. Police also discovered another burglary occurred nearby on Cresthill Avenue just before the Phyllis Place break-in.
Investigators found crack pipes and proceeds from other burglaries in the SUV, a 2002 Mitsubishi Montero, parked outside the Phyllis Place home, Rowan said.
Police charged Francisco Villafane, 39, of Union City, and Valerie Tomassini, 27, of Bayonne, with two counts of burglary each. Both were in Passaic County Jail on Tuesday.
They were also charged in two burglaries in Totowa, one on March 17 and one on Thursday, said Totowa Police Chief Robert Coyle.
Bloomfield and Little Falls police are also investigating the pair’s involvement in burglaries in their jurisdictions, Rowan said.
“It’s an example of good cooperation between the police and fire departments,” Rowan said.
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