Crime & Safety

Former Employee Charged in Rivara's Burglary

A man whom Fair Lawn police stopped in Glen Rock for allegedly fleeing an accident scene in Paterson Thursday was found to be responsible for a burglary at Rivara's the night before, police said.

Officers investigating an overnight burglary at Rivara’s Thursday recognized the suspect as a man they had seen only moments earlier in an unrelated motor vehicle stop in Glen Rock and quickly returned to that scene to arrest him, police said.

Fair Lawn Police Sgt. James Krizek and Officer Sean Nagle, who were called away from the motor vehicle stop to investigate the nearby burglary, returned after identifying the man who had been pulled over in Glen Rock as the burglar in the restaurant’s surveillance footage, Sgt. Brian Metzler said.

“They had seen him on the [motor vehicle] stop and they ran back to the stop and locked him up for the burglary,” Metzler said.

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The suspect, identified as former Rivara’s employee Robert Cochrane, of Elmwood Park, faces burglary and theft charges for the alleged break-in at the restaurant where he had once worked for five days.

Metzler said Cochrane forcefully pulled open the double doors on the side of the restaurant around 3:20 a.m. Thursday and took approximately $2,100 stored in a business office desk. Cochrane, whom Metzler said copped to the break-in, claimed he took only $70 for gas money.

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Before Cochrane’s alleged connection to the burglary was known, Fair Lawn police stopped him on DeBoer Drive behind the Bank of America in Glen Rock after receiving radio communication from Paterson Police that he had fled an accident scene in Paterson, Metzler said.

Detective David Boone, who responded to the scene in Glen Rock, said Cochrane was initially ticketed only for his failure to carry car insurance, with summonses for leaving the scene of an accident and failure to report an accident pending in Paterson.

Boone said Cochrane was actually waiting behind the bank for his damaged car to be towed when officers arrived to arrest him for the burglary.

“We were just hanging around waiting with him until the tow truck came so that he didn’t drive away because he’s got no insurance,” Boone said. “Then suddenly they come on and identified him as the burglar and we placed him under arrest.”

Cochrane was transported to Bergen County Jail in lieu of $20,000 bail.


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