Jersey City police say Downtown man bound, beaten and forced to open safe before thugs flee, taking his friend as hostage; friend later released and investigation is "ongoing"

Saturday, April 16, 2011
By MICHAELANGELO CONTE
JOURNAL STAFF WRITER

A Downtown Jersey City man was bound with duct tape in his home and pistol whipped before being robbed of nearly $15,000 Thursday by gunmen who took the victim's friend as a hostage, officials said yesterday.

The 28-year-old victim told police when he and his friend arrived at his Morris Street residence at 4:25 p.m., two armed men pushed in behind them and started hitting him in the head with the guns, reports said. The victim said he was told to "Shut the (blank) up and give up the money," while being bound with duct tape, reports said.

The robbers got the man's safe, put it in front of him and demanded the combination while continuing to strike him, reports said. The victim complied and the robbers took $15,000 from the safe, reports said, adding that they also took a cell phone and computer.

The Morris Street man said the gunmen then said they were taking his friend as a hostage and left, reports said, adding that he managed to work himself free and ran outside to call for help.

The hostage has been located, Lt. Edgar Martinez said yesterday, adding that the investigation was very active and that no further information could be released.

Anyone with information on the robbery and kidnapping is asked to call the Jersey City police tip line at (201) 547-JAIL.

http://www.nj.com/news/jjournal/jerse ... 02935126270110.xml&coll=3

thanks for the info.

that's pretty scary - a robbery in the middle of the day?

I hope no one was hurt (although I did see an ambulance there for a while)...

This seems to be a real event and a serious one. However, there are some questions to be answered. How do they know who it is? Regardless, must have been highly traumatic for the victims. Armed robbery in your residence at 4pm?!?

Yes - there was a robbery not at 134 but two houses down. I talked to the resident's girlfriend who said they thought they had an idea who did it, but they were in doing fingerprinting.

Does anyone know what happened at 134 Morris St in Paulus Hook today? Around 4pm'ish, there were a lot of police cars and ambulance, and they stayed a while too...

Anyone know anything?