A 26-year-old woman and her daughter were walking on Forest Street when a motorist drove up in an older model, four-door Toyota Camry, stopped the car, exited and exposed his genitals, police said.

The mother and daughter were walking home at about 3:25 p.m. Friday, Sept. 26, when they spotted the car, which was possibly a late 1990s model Camry, driving slowly northbound on Forest Street. The vehicle then stopped and the driver stepped out and walked onto the sidewalk while touching himself, according to police. After the woman screamed for someone to call the police, the suspect returned to his car, turned around and drove south toward Chestnut Street.

Police said the daughter was reading a magazine when the suspect appeared and she did not witness the crime.

The driver was described as a clean-shaven white man with an olive complexion who was 5-feet 7-inches tall. He was wearing a brown baseball cap, a sweatshirt with a striped collar and blue jeans.

Anyone with information that could help police with the case should call Detective Raymond Gulbin, 973-509-4739.

Juveniles commit two muggings

Groups of teenagers robbed two juveniles in separate crimes last Friday, Sept. 26, during which one of the suspects flashed a folding knife and another punched a victim in the face, knocking him off his bike, police said.

In the first case, which occurred at about 7 p.m., seven teen boys who identified themselves as "the MHS Class of 2012" jumped three boys who were using a dirt pathway as a shortcut from Park Street to Bruce Road.

The seven suspects surrounded the three victims and threatened to punch them while shaking their fists. The robbers asked, "Where’s your money at?" and "What’s in your pockets?" as they shoved the three boys and felt their pants’ pockets, police said.

After one of the victims was bullied into handing over his iPod, three of the assailants walked away. But the four remaining suspects stayed with the victims, and apologetically said they were just fooling around and would help them retrieve the MP3 player.

The victims and four suspects followed the three boys who left, with the group that was trailing behind urging the boy with the iPod to give it back as they all walked from Bruce Road across Valley Road to Brookfield Road and then Oakcroft Avenue.

There, the victims caught up to the suspects who were in the lead and the perpetrators, in response, threatened to get violent and again surrounded the victims as one of the robbers flipped open a knife. The victims, two of whom were 16 years old and one who was 17, ran away, and no one was injured.

In a second strong-arm robbery that same night at 8:50 p.m., a 17-year-old boy was riding his bike northbound on North Fullerton Avenue when he passed Watchung Elementary School and encountered a group of teens hanging out inside the playground. After being asked for the time, the bicyclist stopped. The group then surrounded him, police said, and one suspect punched him in the left cheek, knocking him to the ground.

When the victim tried to get up, another suspect punched him in the nose as members of the group demanded that he hand over his money, police said. When the victim yelled for help, the group ran away south on North Fullerton Avenue and the 17-year-old boy, who later told police he was uninjured, went home.

Police cruisers roamed the surrounding streets in search of the suspects, and an officer halted five youths near the intersection of Chestnut and Forest streets.

The boys were panting and sweating as if they had been running, and the victim identified one of the youths as one of his attackers, police said. The five boys were arrested and charged with robbery by force, and all of them were sent to the Essex County Juvenile Detention Center in Newark.

As of Monday, detectives had not yet determined whether the two robberies had been committed by the same group of teens, said Montclair Police Lt. James Carlucci. The cases remain under investigation by the Juvenile Aid Bureau.

Reward offered for bank robbery suspect

The Essex County Sheriff’s Crimestoppers program has offered a $1,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of Shaneefah Williams, 25, of Newark, who has been charged with the Sept. 14 robbery of the Commerce Bank on Bloomfield Avenue. When police searched her home on Seymour Avenue in Newark on Sept. 19, she was absent, and she remains free, authorities said.

If you have information that could help investigators, then call Detective Raymond Gulbin, 973-509-4739.

Dressed in large, dark sunglasses, a hat, a tan shirt and a long, dark skirt, Williams entered the bank and handed a note to a teller demanding money and threatening that she had a bomb, police said. She made off with an undetermined amount of cash, police said.

Vandalism

• Vandals wrote on the bedroom window of a Greenwood Avenue apartment with fecal matter in the early morning on Saturday, Sept. 27, police said. A resident heard a noise outside her children’s bedroom window between 2:30 and 3 a.m. but believed that something had just fallen over on the patio, police said. But later that morning, she called police after finding a white plastic bag containing excrement on her deck and seeing the letters "KS" or "RS" written in waste on the window, police said. In a similar case, overnight between that Saturday and the next morning, Montclair Avenue residents found their Barack Obama lawn sign ripped out of the ground and dumped on the windshield of a car in their driveway, with dog excrement piled on the sign, police said. Police are requesting that anyone with information on the Greenwood Avenue incident call the Juvenile Aid Bureau, 973-509-4751.
• Someone damaged the store window of 330 Bloomfield Ave., near South Willow Street, with a rock at around 9:30 p.m. Monday, Sept. 22, according to police. The business owner was in a back room when she heard two loud bangs, and when she walked into the front of the store she noticed the window had been struck in two spots.

Burglary

Burglars struck sometime between 11:30 a.m. Saturday, Sept. 20, and about 11 a.m. Monday, Sept. 22, stealing tools at the construction site of the new Salvation Army Citadel being erected on Trinity Place, police said. The suspects cut the padlock to a trailer at the site that contains tools and stole two drills, three re-chargers and batteries worth a combined $2,400, police said.

Theft

• A man who left his car unlocked as he went into the Blockbuster Video store on Claremont Avenue Sunday, Sept. 28, had his Sprint cell phone stolen. Someone went inside the car and stole the $600 phone off the front passenger’s seat between about 8:30 and 8:55 p.m., police said.
• A boy who couldn’t find his schoolbook bag after he left it unattended in Watchung Plaza later got a call from a friend who saw a man walking around that area carrying the missing bag. Police arrested 59-year-old Larry Cousins of East Orange at about 4 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 24, and charged him with theft after he was seen lugging the backpack, according to authorities. The bag contained a calculator, two notebooks and a biology textbook. A background check revealed that the suspect had several criminal warrants issued out of Montclair.
• A bus aide’s wallet was stolen at the Montclair Early Childhood Development facility on Fulton Street between Wednesday, Sept. 24, at 2:30 p.m. and Friday, Sept. 26, at 4:30 p.m., police said. The black wallet, which contained the victim’s driver’s license, birth certificate and Social Security card, was inside her purse, which was left inside a desk on the second floor of the facility.
• A men’s 24-speed Trek mountain bike was removed from the rack outside Montclair High School on Chestnut Street between Sept. 19 at 3 p.m. and Sept. 23 at 8 a.m., police said. The $600 bike had been chained to the bike rack.

Public urination

A man who had his pants down and was urinating on Pine Street at 1:11 in the morning Wednesday, Sept. 24, was arrested, police said.

An officer passing by in a patrol car stopped to speak with Lamont Wright, 39, of Montclair after spotting him relieving himself by the side of the road, police said. Wright smelled as if he had been drinking booze, according to police. A database search for information on Wright revealed he had a $1,000 criminal warrant issued out of East Orange, police indicated. After being arrested and charged with public urination, he was escorted to the East Orange Police Department.

Shoplifting

Mine Hill resident Alexandra Pilco, 19, was arrested and charged with trying to shoplift from the South Park Street Urban Outfitters at 6:35 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 23, police said. Pilco tried to walk out of the store after stuffing a scarf, a small case and a T-shirt into her purse, but she was stopped when she tripped the security system, police said. The goods were worth a total of $64. After Pilco was processed, she was released at 8:15 that night.

Warrants

• A Montclair man who an officer spotted amongst a group of people standing and drinking at the corner of Pine Street and Glenridge Avenue, was arrested and charged with having "numerous" outstanding warrants, police said. The group had congregated on the Pine Street side of Caggiano’s Liquors and a man standing in its midst dropped a beer can behind a fence when he saw the officer’s car drive past at 4:07 p.m. on Tuesday, Sept. 23, according to authorities. When the officer stopped and stepped out, he recognized Stanley Richardson, 54, from previous encounters, police said. Richardson, who resides elsewhere in Montclair, had been warned not to hang out and drink at the corner anymore. Police said Richardson’s breath smelled of liquor and a background check revealed that he had more than $2,700 in warrants from Montclair, East and West Orange, Union and Paterson. He was arrested and additionally cited for obstructing a public passageway.
• Steven Lamour, 24, of East Orange, was placed in the custody of the Montclair police on Saturday, Sept. 27, at around 11:48 a.m. since he had more than $1,400 in warrants issued by Montclair, South Orange and Orange, police said. Montclair officers picked Lamour up from the Livingston police. 
• Bloomfield officers transferred Montclair resident Brandon Preaster, 23, into the custody of the Montclair police at about 6 p.m. Monday, Sept. 22, police said. Preaster was wanted based on a $1,000 criminal warrant issued by Montclair authorities, according to police.

  — 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.