Manalapan Police Charge Man With Water Equipment Theft

Manalapan police have filed charges against a Perth Amboy man who they say stole water meters and brass back flow preventers from two neighborhoods.

On July 30, around 9:13 p.m. Detective Dominick Donatelli, Jr. charged Lucio Morales-Rosas, 31, with four counts of theft of moveable property.

He has already been charged in Holmdel and Marlboro with similar offenses.

Holmdel police said that since 2013, Morales-Rosas has scrapped more than 10,000 pounds of brass, worth more than $17,000.

In Manalapan, police say he stole the equipment from the Knob Hill and the Meadow Creek developments.

Donatelli credited Holmdel Detective Matt Menosky of the Holmdel Township Police Department, Marlboro Detective Anthony Peterpaul, Plainsboro Detective Dan Kanaley and Cranbury Detective Ray Wetzel for solving the case, a police news release said.