YOU READ IT HERE FIRST: Washington Township police said they arrested a transient whom they found carrying heroin after the caught him walking around a neighborhood.
Alerted by a White Birch Road resident to a stranger wearing a backpack walking in the area of Washington School around 9 p.m. Tuesday, officers asked James Laube whether he needed help, Police Chief Glenn Hooper said this afternoon.
Laube showed them a New Jersey driver’s license and “went on to explain [that] he was between living arrangements in town and another county,” the chief said.
He later “changed his story as to why he was walking around at that time of night with a backpack,” he said.
A computer check showed that Laube was wanted on a $5,000 warrant out of Newark, so they took him into custody.
Laube posted $15,000 before dawn today and was released from the Bergen County Jail. He faces charges of possessing drugs and a hypodermic needle.
Hooper thanked the resident who called — and others who’ve done the same — for “being the eyes and ears of our community.”
MUGSHOT: Courtesy WASHINGTON TOWNSHIP PD
