Woodbridge Pharmacy Robbed With Toy Gun, Police Say

WOODBRIDGE, NJ — A Linden man robbed a Woodbridge pharmacy on New Brunswick Avenue this past Sunday, March 10, showing a toy gun and demanding Oxycontin, Woodbridge police said.

The robbery occurred late in the day Sunday, according to Woodbridge Police Capt. Scott Kuzma: The man went into the AR-EX Pharmacy at 370 New Brunswick Avenue in Fords, showed a toy gun and was given Oxy.

Andrew Vayda, 58, a Linden resident, was apprehended by police two days later, on Tuesday, where he was staying at the Studio 6 motel off Rt. 18 in East Brunswick.

Just hours earlier, this same man is suspected by police to have stolen a car in East Brunswick: Police say he pulled a woman out of her car in the parking lot of the East Brunswick Walmart earlier that Sunday morning, and drove off with it. East Brunswick police briefly chased him, but abandoned the chase as he sped north up the Turnpike into Woodbridge Twp.

Once in Woodbridge, police say Vayda called in a bomb threat and shots fired at the Woodbridge Walmart; it was a hoax, police said, he never brought a gun into the Woodbridge Walmart. It remains unclear his motivation in that alleged incident.

He then went to the AR-EX pharmacy and robbed it, police say.

His arrest was the culmination of Woodbridge and East Brunswick police working together to locate him at the Studio 6 motel. He was arrested Tuesday and taken to East Brunswick police headquarters. Once at headquarters, Vayda was interviewed by both departments and he admitted to the Sunday incidents in both jurisdictions, police said.

Vayda was charged with carjacking, aggravated assault, eluding and theft. In the Woodbridge cases, he was charged with armed robbery, weapons charges, causing a false public alarm and theft.

Vayda was remanded to the Middlesex County Adult Correctional Center.

Related: Carjacking Occurred At East Brunswick Walmart, Police Report (March 13, 2019)