Cops: Long Walk, Closed Store Thwarts North Jersey Man's Armed Robbery Attempt

If at first you don’t succeed, try try again.

And if the store is closed, don’t try at all.

A Hopatcong man was arrested and charged with weapons offenses after police say he planned to rob multiple stores last weekend but was thwarted due to long walking distances and locked doors.

On Friday, June 5, two musicians were leaving the Barber Shop recording studios in Hopatcong when they saw a man walking down the road with “a long gun,” Lt. Thomas Kmetz said.

The musicians hid and called 9-1-1 and when police arrived the witnesses said the man with the gun went behind a nearby restaurant, Kmetz said. A search by officers turned up nothing.

Over the course of the next few days, police gathered information regarding the incident and received a tip through Facebook that the man being sought was Russell Stewart, 20. Detectives from the Hopatcong Police Department went to Stewart’s house, where officers found the weapon the man was carrying the night of the incident, Kmetz said.

Stewart allegedly told police he was planning on walking to the 7-Eleven in Roxbury to rob it, Kmetz said. When Stewart realized the walk was too far, he rerouted and planned to rob the E&T Deli in Hopatcong, but it was closed, so he went home, Kmetz said.

Stewart was charged with possession of a weapon for unlawful purpose and possession of a shotgun without obtaining a firearms ID card.

He was lodged in Sussex County Jail on $30,000 bail with no 10-percent option.

Pictured: Russell Stewart. Photo Courtesy Hopatcong Police Department