A Hoboken resident was treated to a surprise just after midnight on Saturday, May 30 when two men left a bar and allegedly busted into his upstairs apartment looking for a person who threw an ice cube at them.
Almost one month later, on Wednesday, June 24, Hoboken police issued an arrest warrant for Thomas Carroll, 44, of Point Pleasant, N.J., and John DeRose, 40, Hoboken, on charges of burglary and aggravated assault.
Carroll is a Bridge and Tunnel traffic agent for the Port Authority of N.Y. and N.J., but he is not a law enforcement agent.
Both men turned themselves in to police on Thursday, June 25 and were released on bail.
Ice cube hits like a brick?
The victim, “Ken,” who also writes periodically for the Reporter newspapers, said he was doing dishes in his third-floor apartment just off Washington Street after midnight on Saturday, May 30.
His wife and young child had gone to bed when he heard his door open and saw a man in his apartment. His apartment door was not locked, although the ground floor door was secured, he said.
Ken said his first thought was, “Why is this man in my house?”
“I said to him, ‘You can’t be in here,’ and he said, ‘I just got hit with a brick,’ ” Ken recalled last week. The “brick” was later reported to be an ice cube thrown from somewhere above, according to a police report.
According to the victim, the men saw the light on in his apartment and assumed it was he who threw the brick. Then the men allegedly busted in.
Ken said he had heard noise on nearby rooftops on the night in question and suspects that someone from a roof threw or dropped the ice cube that hit the man.
Fight breaks out
Ken said the first man wasn’t leaving the apartment, but rather moving toward the bedroom where Ken’s wife and child were.
Ken said he “lunged” toward the man and a struggle ensued. The fight spilled down to the small second floor landing when a second man entered the building and allegedly joined the fray. Ken claims that as he turned to engage the second man, the first man put him in a chokehold.
Then, an off-duty waitress from the bar entered the apartment building and told the two alleged intruders to leave, according to Ken’s recollection.
Onto the street
Ken followed the men outside, still enraged at the circumstances. “I was flailing away,” Ken acknowledged last week. “It was pure adrenaline.”
The men left the scene, but Ken furiously inquired to bar staff about the men’s and woman’s identity. He was so enraged that he flipped over an empty table outside the bar, he said.
Police arrived and were about to arrest him, until he explained to them the full nature of the situation, he said.
The bar owner told the officers they could speak to the off-duty waitress or view video footage from the bar that night, according to Ken.
The officers told Ken to come to police headquarters in the morning to make his statement and begin a police investigation.
Ken said his wife and child slept through the entire event.
The investigation
On Saturday morning, police told Ken and his wife to come back on Monday to speak with a detective, and on Monday they were told a detective would be in touch with them.
On Tuesday, June 2, Ken finally heard from a detective – “80 hours after the incident,” he said – who took his statement and assured him the investigation would be thorough.
“He seemed like the first guy who understood the gravity of the situation,” he said.
Ken said within the next day, the detective had spoken to the bar owner and the waitress and told Ken that he would review video of the night in question.
However, Ken waited and heard nothing.
After two weeks went by, Ken still had heard nothing from the police, so he called the detective back and reached out to the Reporter. The police didn’t return his call until a week later, on Tuesday, June 23, hours after the Reporter made calls to the Police Department regarding the status of the investigation.
According to a source, police contacted the bar owner to view the video the day they got the call from the Reporter.
A source said the man planned to file countercharges, but they did not.
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Known about town?
According to arrest records, Carroll is a Bridge and Tunnel traffic agent for the Port Authority of N.Y. and N.J. and DeRose is a local insurance broker. A Port Authority spokesman confirmed that Carroll is a traffic agent assigned to the Lincoln Tunnel, but clarified that traffic agents are not law enforcement officers.
Several credible sources claimed the two men are well-known in Hoboken and especially at the bar in question.
Both men were contacted by the Reporter, and both declined comment. A lawyer for DeRose did not immediately return calls.
Another source said Carroll and DeRose were planning to file countercharges against Ken. However, none had been filed by press time.
Police Chief Anthony Falco declined to comment on the investigation, claiming the information could compromise a court case.
Timothy J. Carroll may be reached at tcarroll@hudsonreporter.com.