Sledge Hammer-Wielding Man Stole Brick Store's Register, Safe: PD

BRICK, NJ — A Brick Township man has been charged with burglary after police officers checking a missing person's report recognized the missing man as one seen on video smashing a store door with a sledge hammer and burglarizing it.

Albert Tilton, 63, has been charged with burglary and criminal mischief in the burglary of Sweet Green Food Market, 2746 Hooper Ave., Brick Sgt. Jim Kelly said Friday.

Kelly said Tilton, of Pine Drive, was seen on security footage from the market using a sledge hammer to smash the glass in the front door of the store at about 3 a.m. Thursday. Once inside, he took the cash register and left the store, Kelly said.

Ninety minutes later, the video captured Tilton returning to the market and stealing a floor safe, he said.

Brick Detective Dan Waleski, who was investigating, shared the store’s video footage with patrol officers so they could be on the lookout for him. It didn't take long for that to pay off, Kelly said.

Just before 6 p.m. Patrolman Michael Bennett responded to a report of a missing person. A relative of Tilton said he had shown up at her house at 8:30 a.m. and was behaving somewhat irrationally, and asked for a ride to sell some things at the flea market.

The relative refused to give Tilton a ride, Kelly said, so he left. When she showed Bennett footage from her Ring doorbell, Bennett recognized it showed the same subject as the Sweet Green security camera footage, Kelly said.

Bennett then contacted Waleski, and officers went to Tilton's home. At the same time, Patrolman Robert Heschle saw a man he identified as Tilton riding a bike in the area and stopped him. Bennett responded to where Heschle was detaining Tilton and arrested him, Kelly said.

A search of Tilton incidental to arrest yielded cash believed to be proceeds of the burglary, Kelly said, and a search of his Pine Drive home yielded the stolen safe and the sledge hammer used to break the front door.

The cash register was found in the trail that leads from Pine Drive to Hooper Avenue, where Sweet Green Food Market is located.

Tilton was charged with two counts of burglary, two counts of theft, and criminal mischief in excess of $3,000 worth of damage, Kelly said. He was being held at the Ocean County Jail.

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