Three Arrested for Storage Container Theft in Cedar Grove

Cedar Grove Police arrested three New York residents in the early morning hours on Saturday for stealing hundreds of plastic containers from CVS stores with the intention of selling them to a plastics recycling company, police said this week.

Around 4:30 a.m. on Saturday, Nov. 5, Ptl. Robert McDermott pulled over a "suspicious truck" that had been idling behind the CVS/Pharmacy location at 1041 Pompton Ave. Upon closer investigation, McDermott was able to determine that the three occupants of the truck had just stolen 148 plastic storage containers from a fenced-in storage area in the rear of the store.

Police say Christian Saravia, 21, Andy Martinez, 18, and an unidentified 17-year-old, all from Far Rockaway, N.Y., were also in possession of an additional 450 plastic containers, that police believed to have been stolen from other CVS locations in Montclair and Clifton. All three were arrested and later released pending Superior Court arraignment for Saravia and Martinez, and Juvenile Court proceedings for the 17-year-old.

The detective bureau is conducting a follow-up investigation to determine if the latest incident is related to similar past incidents of theft at the same CVS store.

Police say the aggregate value of the containers was $1,794.