Cousins charged in $100K copper theft from Florham Park

Two cousins were arrested today and charged with stealing $100,000 worth of copper wire from a warehouse owned by the Lapp Group on Hanover Road in Florham Park.

A police report claiming burglary and theft at the site was filed with borough police on April 27. The same day, borough Detective Joseph J. Orlando started an investigation and reviewed video surveillance systems in the area.

His probe led to the arrests today of Andrew J. Oreckinto, 43, with addresses of Ravine Drive, Matawan, and Monroe, N.Y., and his brother, Kevin Oreckinto, 41, of Staten Island, N.Y. Their bails were set today at $100,000 each.

Orlando’s review of video surveillance tapes showed an unknown person approaching the Lapp Group building on April 26 at 7:42 p.m. carrying a tool bag. The phone lines to the building then were cut.

Video surveillance from an adjacent building showed a white minivan pulled into the parking lot at the time the phone lines were cut, and the van exited the adjacent lot as the unknown person exited the Lapp Group tract.

More surveillance tapes showed an unknown person entering the warehouse by using a hydraulic door jam expander on April 26 at 9 p.m. Through a series of tapes, police pieced together how a Mack truck carrying a roll-off Dumpster arrived at the site and a person was observed loading the Dumpster with six rolls of copper wire.

At 2:04 a.m. on April 27, the same Mack truck entered the property and a person was seen loading the Dumpster with 12 rolls of copper wire.

Detectives determined the identity of the alleged thieves by tracing EZ Pass records, vehicle registrations and ultimately cellular phone records.

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