JERSEY CITY – Police on Friday announced the arrest of a man whom they allege has been robbing copper piping from local churches and other locations.
Police spokesperson Stan Eason said Paul Chisolm, 47, of Virginia Avenue, was arrested Thursday around 10:30 p.m while allegedly hiding on the roof of 500 Martin Luther King Drive, also known as the Extra Supermarket. Eason said Chisolm is suspected by police as the person behind the theft of copper pipes in recent weeks from the roof of the Extra Supermarket, as well as air-conditioning units at St. Patrick’s Roman Catholic Church and St. John’s Baptist Church, both on Bramhall Avenue, and the Salem Lafayette apartments on Madison Avenue.
Eason said this is not the first time Chisolm has been charged with pilfering copper. He said Chisolm had been released from prison in October after a two-year sentence for robbing copper pipes from the Extra Supermarket.
Chisolm is charged with two counts of burglary as well as other charges related to his crimes, according to Eason. Eason said police are looking into other thefts of copper in the vicinity of the Extra Supermarket. – Ricardo Kaulessar