Thief Uses U-Haul Van to steal Thousands from cubeSmart

A New Jersey man stole more than $150,000 in personal property and valuables from four units at a CubeSmart on East 22nd Street in Union, New Jersey, local police have reported.

Winston A. Gordon, 32, was arrested at his home Wednesday and charged with four counts of burglary, three counts of theft and one count of receiving stolen property related to incidents at the CubeSmart location.

A man reported to police on Dec. 10 that items that he valued at $8,000 were missing from his storage unit. More than a month later, on Jan. 13, three people reported to police that additional storage units had been burglarized. The first victim told police approximately $130,000 in personal property had been stolen. The second victim reported approximately $9,000 in personal property stolen and the third victim reported approximately $3,500 in personal property stolen.

Officers recovered numerous pieces of evidence from the scene and found that Gordon loaded the stolen items into a U-Haul van before fleeing the scene. After identifying Gordon as the burglar, detectives recovered all the items stolen from one of the victims and were also able to locate the U-Haul van used in the thefts. Further investigation revealed that the van had been reported stolen by U-Haul for failure to be returned by the renter.

Gordon was additionally charged for being in receipt of the stolen van. This investigation remains on-going as detectives attempt to locate and recover the property stolen from the other victims.