Five Arrested from Lakewood, Brooklyn in Violent Forced Eviction in Jackson Home

Shore News Network

JACKSON TOWNSHIP, NJ – Jackson Police were called to a home owned by Brooklyn residents Yecheskel Landau and Basha Wolpin on Wednesday on the report of a violent home invasion where a family was assaulted by five home intruders working on behalf of the homeowners to evict them.

According to county records, no legal eviction proceeding was approved by the courts.

Police said the five men forced their way into a home on Olena Drive and forced the victims to hand over their cellphones so they couldn’t call the police. They assaulted the victims and began changing the locks in the home.

When police arrived Wednesday at 6:09 p.m. they encountered a female resident pointing out the five males standing inside the house and shouting to the officers that they had broken into the house and assaulted the family.


“The five male suspects were detained and taken into custody as the officers continued the investigation,” Captain Steven Laskiewicz said in a statement. “The investigation revealed that the suspects had forced entry to the front door of the house, causing damage to it in the process. They reportedly held down a male and female resident and took their phones from them to prevent them from calling the police. They then started changing the deadbolt and locks on the front door. The male resident was able to retrieve his phone from the suspects and then call for assistance.”


Police found the house was leased through a long chain of custody where the owner of the home leased it to another man who then sub-leased the home to the current residents.

Instead of going through the legal eviction process, the owner of the home instead hired a security company which is based in Brooklyn, New York to evict the people who were living there without going through the eviction process. The five employees then responded to the location and forcibly made entry to the residence and detained the occupants while they began changing the locks on the doors.

“Also, several hours prior to this incident, patrol officers had responded to the area on the report of a suspicious vehicle. At the time, the suspects identified themselves as employees of a security company waiting to meet a client for a job in the area,” Laskiewicz said. “At that time after identifying them, officers had no legal reason to detain them further as they were not engaged in any illegal activity.”

“The Ocean County Prosecutor’s Office was contacted and approved the second degree and other charges against all the arrestees who were charged with: robbery, burglary, criminal restraint, theft, criminal mischief, criminal trespassing and simple assault,” Laskiewicz added. “All were then lodged in the Ocean County Jail.”

All five have since been released from jail under New Jersey’s Bail Reform Act.

The suspects were all placed under arrest and transported to police headquarters where they were processed and complaints were prepared. They were identified as:

– Christopher “chesky” Landau, age 26 of Brooklyn, NY.

– Robert Drozd, age 38 of Brooklyn, NY.

– Marco Balanzar-Hernandez, age 45 of Lakewood, NJ.

– Joseph Castano, age 22 of Brooklyn, NY.

– Cesar Saavedra-Luna, age 24 of Brooklyn, NY.

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