Matawan Man Stole $500,000 Worth of Cigarettes

MATAWAN, NJ - A man originally from Matawan was convicted Monday in federal court for breaking into a Connecticut warehouse and stealing $500,000 worth of cigarette cartons — more than 8,000 cartons. Andrew Oreckinto, 52, originally from Matawan, is currently already in prison, serving a five-year sentence for stealing $100,000 worth of copper cable and selling it for scrap.

The warehouse break-in occurred in Wethersfield, Connecticut in March 2011. At approximately 7:00 a.m. on March 20, 2011, Wethersfield Police responded to an open garage door complaint at New Britain Candy, a warehouse for a business that distributes items to convenience stores in Connecticut and neighboring states. A glue-like substance had been forced into the front door lock causing it to be inoperable, exterior surveillance camera wires and a phone line had been cut, and alarm panels and speakers had been disabled.

Approximately 8,012 cartons of cigarettes, as well as a pallet jack, were missing from the warehouse. The stolen cigarettes had a wholesale value of approximately $300,000 and a retail value of approximately $500,000, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Connecticut said.

A man, later identified as Oreckinto, was seen on video surveillance footage, the US Attorney said. He was dressed in a black hooded sweatshirt, dark pants, black gloves, a black face mask, and wore a headband light around his head. Prior to the burglary, he had stolen a white box truck from a business in Hartford. The day after the burglary, the truck was found near a commercial construction site in Stamford. The stolen pallet jack was recovered from the cargo area of the truck.

Examination of the call history of Oreckinto's prepaid phone ultimately led investigators to several other prepaid phones that had been used in multiple commercial burglaries in Connecticut, New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. Oreckinto previously was convicted of two of these other burglaries, including a burglary that occurred at a Waldbaum’s Supermarket in Rockville Centre, N.Y., overnight on December 31, 2010 and January 1, 2011, and a commercial warehouse burglary in Florham Park, N.J., on April 28, 2008, during which $100,000 worth of copper was stolen. He was sentenced to a term of imprisonment for both of these burglaries.

At the time of his arrest for the New Jersey burglary, a search of Oreckinto's car revealed a list of licensed cigarette distributors in the state of Connecticut that had been printed from the Connecticut Department of Revenue Services web site, the U.S. Attorney's office said. The list, which included the New Britain Candy warehouse in Wethersfield, also contained several handwritten notations next to many of the businesses, at least three of which also have been burglarized.

On Monday, a federal jury found the Matawan native guilty of one count of theft from an interstate shipment, an offense that carries a maximum term of imprisonment of 10 years. Judge Meyer scheduled sentencing for May 8.

Photo of Andrew Oreckinto taken from the New Jersey Dept. of Corrections database.