Burlington County Prosecutor Robert D. Bernardi announced that a Medford Township man pleaded guilty today in superior court to 24 counts of theft and burglary that were committed in six towns over a 10-month period that ended in August 2012.
The man admitted before the Hon. Charles A. Delehey, J.S.C. to committing three counts of theft (second degree) and 21 counts of burglary (third degree).
The plea follows a three-week trial last month that concluded with him being found guilty of one count of theft (second degree) and three counts of burglary (third degree). Those charges were unrelated to the ones to which he pleaded guilty on Jan. 12.
Judge Delehey will sentence him on March 3 on the charges resulting from the trial as well as the 24 offenses to which he has pleaded guilty.
Under the plea agreement, the sentence for the thefts and burglaries he admitted to in court on Jan. 12 will be decided by Judge Delehey in what is known as an open plea.
The thefts netted more than $2 million in stolen goods from residences in Evesham, Medford Township, Moorestown and Mount Laurel in Burlington County and Haddonfield and Voorhees in Camden County. Most of the homes were in upscale neighborhoods, near a golf course or wooded lot with minimal views, and were secluded from neighboring properties.
At the targeted homes, phone and alarm wires were cut, and entry was often made by smashing a rear sliding door. The defendants would use a police radio to monitor emergency communications. The burglaries were committed while the residents were not at home.
Items stolen included jewelry, watches, furs, coins, crystal, silverware, handbags, firearms, camera equipment and other electronics. Once the similarities in the burglaries were discovered, a task force was formed consisting of law enforcement agencies from the affected towns, as well as the Camden County Prosecutor’s Office.
A break in the case came after DNA from the convicted man was found on a flashlight left behind during one of the Moorestown burglaries. From there the investigation shifted to the analysis of more than 9,000 phone calls and text messages, as well as surveillance.
Many of the items were pawned. Even so, more than 500 stolen items were recovered. Some of them were buried in the convicted man’s yard and others were hidden in an abandoned building in Philadelphia.
The man was arrested on Sept. 5, 2012 along with another Medford man. The second convicted man pled guilty on May 20, 2015 to two counts of burglary in exchange for five years of probation and 364 days in the Burlington County Jail.
