PEMBERTON, NJ – A peculiar incident unfolded on Wednesday morning when State Police Sgt. Jeffrey Lebron reported that troopers detained a man who emerged from the woods along Route 50 near Main Street around 8:55 a.m.
The individual, who initially refused to identify himself, told officers he had just crashed a plane in a nearby field, leading to his arrest for obstruction.
Further investigation revealed the man as 42-year-old Robert Wagner from Point Pleasant. Wagner had been arrested the previous day by Pemberton police, and was suspected of stealing a single-engine Quad City Ultralight aircraft from a local hangar. Sgt. Lebron confirmed that the registration details of the crashed aircraft matched those of the stolen plane, which was taken from a hanger owned by Surran’s Nursery.
The bizarre sequence of events continues to unfold as authorities delve deeper into the circumstances surrounding the theft and crash.