Avenel Man Charged With a Crazy Spree That Spanned Two Towns

The exploits of Cheung Y. Lee, 41, of Woodbridge, on May 31 allegedly spanned the jurisdictions of East Windsor and Little Silver.

Lee began his crime spree when he was charged May 31 in East Windsor with false public alarm and improper use of the 911 system.

 said Lee called their department’s Communication Center at 12:52 pm and told them a large building was going to be destroyed. Police said they quickly determined Lee was the person who made the call and arrested him.

Lee was released on $5,000 bail pending court action, but according to officials, that wasn’t his last contact with law enforcement that day.

Later that afternoon, at 4:19 pm, and kept his clasped hands in his pocket as if he were holding a gun, according to Marc LeMieux, director of major crimes at the Monmouth County Prosecutor’s Office. 

“He said, ‘Nobody move,’ so everyone looks at him, everyone stops,” LeMieux said. “Somebody starts to move and he says, ‘I said, nobody move.’ Then he walks up to the counter and he basically just tells the woman at counter, 'Here's a $50 bill. Can you make change for me?’”

LeMieux said Lee asked for ten, five, and one-dollar bills for his fifty, and then asked the teller if she was scared. “’She says, ‘I kind of was, it appeared you had a gun.’ Then he laughed, turned around and walked out.”

Down the street from the bank, LeMieux said, Lee approached a group of four teenage girls and “made a comment to them about having a gun.”

The girls eventually called the police, who had gone out in search of Lee after receiving a call about the bank incident. But Lee wasn’t picked up until he was back in East Windsor the next day to see police about the alleged false 911 call, LeMieux said. East Windsor police said Monmouth County officials had requested to speak with Lee, and so they turned him over after speaking with him June 1 about the East Windsor charges.

In Little Silver, Lee was charged with false public alarm and terroristic threats for the alleged bank incident, and another count of terroristic threats for the alleged incident with the girls.

“He didn't have a gun on him; however, the investigation did reveal he had a gun in his vehicle,” LeMieux said.

Lee was released on $75,000 bail and then voluntarily entered a treatment facility in Monmouth County, according to LeMieux.