With his handgun pointed at a Harrison Avenue service station worker, an armed robber took hundreds of dollars from the victim on Sunday afternoon, Aug. 24, police said.

The 28-year-old attendant was inside the office of Pine’s Auto Service, near the corner of Harrison and Virginia avenues and the West Orange border, when a man with fabric covering part of his face walked in at about 3 p.m., said Montclair Police Lt. James Carlucci.

The suspect drew a black semiautomatic handgun and pointed it at the victim, then walked around the counter and culled "at least $500" in cash, belonging to the business, from the attendant’s right pants pocket, Carlucci said. The suspect then left and took off on foot, heading in an unknown direction, the lieutenant said.

The robber was described as a black man in a blue long-sleeved shirt with his face partially covered by an unspecified garment, police said.

Anyone with information that could help authorities catch the robber should call Detective Ricky Singleton, 973-509-4722.

Three fires fueled by sawdust, brush, discarded match

Authorities were summoned to put out three fires between Aug. 20 and 24: A brush fire near the Essex Pool on Chestnut Street, a small fire inside a vacant apartment, and a third blaze on a front porch, ignited by a cigarette.

A passerby directed a police officer’s attention to a fire at the southern border of the Essex Pool on Wednesday, Aug. 20, at 9 p.m., according to police. Leaves and brush that had collected in the space between a six-foot wooden fence, lining a residential property on Montclair Avenue, and a chain-link fence, had caught fire.

Montclair firefighters responded and extinguished the flames, but before they were put out the fire caused damage to the wooden fence belonging to the residence. The cause of the fire was unclear, and police couldn’t find any witnesses who had seen it ignite.

The same day at 11:15 p.m., authorities heard there was a strong smell of smoke on Walnut Street near Midland Avenue. They found heavy smoke emanating from a three-family home and traced it to an unoccupied apartment on the third floor that was being renovated.

Contractors who had been sanding the apartment’s floors earlier in the day had left a bucket full of sawdust on the floor, and it went up in flames. The fire burned a small section of the floor, but there was no other physical damage to the house, officials said. Firefighters used a blower to ventilate the building.

Four days later, the porch of a multifamily house on Central Avenue caught fire after one of the residents used a match to light a cigarette and threw it on the ground 15 minutes before the fire started. The flames caused damage to the front porch, but firefighters extinguished them before they infiltrated the house.

After an intruder entered an apartment on Rosedale Avenue through a window and stole jewelry, a neighbor of the burglarized house told police a suspicious man had also come to her door that day, police said.

When the victim departed from her apartment for an hour, between 12 and 1 p.m. on Tuesday, Aug. 19, she left a window partly open. When she returned, she found the back door was unlocked. Upon walking into her room, she found the blinds lying on the bed, one of the windows open and the window screen on the ground in the back yard.

A jewelry box containing several gold rings and necklaces had been stolen from a closet, police said.

A neighbor who officers interviewed after they learned of the burglary told them that a man had rang her doorbell that day and asked if "Niecy" was home, but no one by that name resides with her, police said. The neighbor could not provide a detailed description of the stranger, police said.

Another neighbor saw a light-skinned black man, who was between 35 and 40 years old and had a mustache and a white shirt, walking on Rosedale Avenue at 12:20 p.m. A third witness reported seeing three boys, who were black and between 15 and 17 years old, one of whom was wearing a blue cap and another who had short dreadlocks, walking in the area.

Anyone with information about the case is requested to call the Juvenile Aid Bureau, 973-509-4751.

• The passenger of a car pulled over on Tuesday, Aug. 19, at 6 p.m. on Bloomfield Avenue was charged with having outstanding criminal warrants totaling $1,777, police said.

  The car was stopped just south of Grove Street since the driver, a man from Newark who police didn’t identify, wasn’t wearing a seatbelt, according to authorities. Officers then learned that the passenger, East Orange resident Mark Williams, 43, was wanted by authorities in his hometown and in Newark and Orange, police said.

• After two men were detained on Madison Avenue, since they matched the description of the suspects in a recent residential burglary, one of them was arrested and charged with having warrants from Montclair and East Orange for a combined $566, police said.

  Sylvester Clarke, 23, of Montclair, and another man were stopped by police on Tuesday, Aug. 19 at 12:59 a.m. on Madison Avenue, in the area of Gardiner Place, since they looked like the suspects from an Aug. 16 Madison Avenue burglary, authorities said. Although they were cleared of involvement in that crime, officers learned that Clarke had several warrants for his arrest and he was taken into custody, police indicated.

• Gregory Miller Jr., 27, of Montclair, was arrested and charged with having an outstanding warrant from East Orange for $785 on Wednesday, Aug. 20, police said. Officers who spotted Miller on Mission Street knew he had an open warrant and made the arrest, according to police.

• Someone shattered the glass set in the front storm door of a single-family house near the corner of Marion and Valley roads while the residents were away, police said. The glass was broken sometime between Saturday, Aug. 16, at 10 a.m. and Tuesday, Aug. 19, at 6:30 p.m.

  Investigators did not find what object might have been used to cause the damage.

  A witness saw a black man in an oversized white T-shirt and blue jeans walking away from the house at about 1:30 p.m. on Aug. 19, police said.

• Someone smashed the window to the driver’s door of a 2001 Ford Focus while it was parked near the corner of Talbot and Dey streets on Sunday, Aug. 24, between 10 a.m. and 1:20 p.m., according to police. Nothing was stolen out of the car and investigators could not find what had been used to break the glass.

  — DAN PROCHILO

  "Police news" is compiled by The Montclair Times from information provided by the Montclair Police Department. The information is released to the press at the discretion of the department and may not represent the total scope of police activity. Accounts that indicate charges pending against an individual do not imply guilt or innocence.