Around 2:30 p.m. a week ago last Thursday, Samuel LaScala and his girlfriend were returning home after a bite to eat on Washington Street. As they exited the elevator door, they noticed that the door to their apartment was ajar. LaScalas first thought was that maybe his girlfriend’s housemate was home, but from the first moment he saw the door, he knew that something might be wrong.
As he got to the threshold of the apartment, he saw a strange man inside, mumbling something about supposedly seeing the guy who did it. But LaScala became instantly suspicious when he saw the strange man in his girlfriend’s apartment wearing white cotton gloves.
Before he knew what happened, LaScala was chasing this man down through the streets of Hoboken.
At one point, he got within arm’s reach and grabbed the assailant’s jacket, but the accused burglar slipped through his jacket and continued on down the street, until LaScala finally caught up to him and held him down until the police arrive.
“It all happened so fast,” said LaScala last week. “I just kind of reacted.”
But what’s more, the man has been charged with 17 counts of burglary.
The man that is being held is 29-year-old Joel Arvelo of Elizabeth. According to police reports, and police detective Sgt. William Gohde, Arvelo was charged with 17 counts of burglary and theft and one count of robbery in connection with burglaries throughout the city. The total estimate of his take in the robberies is approximately $47,000, Gohde said. Thus far, police have retrieved about 1 percent of the stolen goods.
Police say that Arvelo has confessed to all the burglaries and took police on a guided tour of the buildings he was accused of having broken into.
When Arvelo was caught at the corner of Garden and 12th Streets, police say he was carrying a sum of money that was later identified as the victim’s and four bags of heroin.
The burglaries transpired over a three-month span and occurred on Willow, Adams, Madison, Garden, Clinton, and 12th Streets, among others. As of Friday, Arvelo was detained at the Hudson County Jail in Kearny on $50,000 bail.
“Even after all of this,” said the victim last week, “I still think Hoboken’s a pretty safe place. We’ve gotten a new door with new locks, and I continually see police patrolling the neighborhood.”