Monmouth County Man Indicted on Carjacking Charge

A grand jury has handed up an indictment, charging a 39-year-old Middletown man with the carjacking of a cab driver in town last year.

Pietro G. Amato, of Leonardville Road in the Leonardo section of town was indicted Wednesday on charges of carjacking, armed robbery, possession of a weapon for unlawful purposes, unlawful possession of a weapon and theft.

Amato was armed with a handgun during the Aug. 20 carjacking in Middletown, according to the indictment.

Amato stole the cab from a New York City taxi driver at the BP Gas Station on Route 35 around 3:30 a.m., the Asbury Park Press reported last year.

He was arrested a short time later, after residents on Minton Court and Rutledge Drive called police because a man was knocking on doors, requesting that residents call him a taxi, the newspaper reported.