Police had some fun reporting its catch of the day on Tuesday about a man accused of stealing $300,000 worth of shrimp.
(File photo) CRANBURY -- The New Jersey State Police had some fun reporting its catch of the day on Wednesday, saying that it had netted a man wanted for stealing a cargo of shrimp valued at $300,000, according to a statement posted on the state police's Facebook page.
"People have been stealing those delicious little critters quite often as of late, and we've been netting them. Get it? Netting? Yeah awful," they joked in the post.
Police at about 6:15 p.m. on Tuesday stopped a trucker, 51-year-old Emilce Rodriguez-Aguilar, of Homestead, Florida, for a traffic violation on the New Jersey Turnpike southbound near milepost 95 in Cranbury.
After learning that Rodriguez-Aguilar had an outstanding criminal warrant out of South Plainfield, police arrested him without an incident, officials said.
Authorities eventually learned that Rodriguez-Aguilar had been wanted for stealing the $300,000 cargo of shrimp from Preferred Freezer in Woodbridge in November, 2015. He allegedly "obtained the cargo with valid pick-up order numbers, but never delivered it to its intended destination," according to officials.
State police officials wrote in their post that it had been a while since they were able to write about a shrimp theft, and that they were beginning to go into "crustacean withdrawal."
But, "cosmic forces," they wrote, "bestowed upon us the mother-load of recent shrimp heists."
Rodriguez-Aguilar was charged with theft by unlawful taking, theft by deception, and was held at the Middlesex County Correctional Facility on $75,000 full cash bail.
The case is being investigated by the state police's Interstate Theft North Unit along with the state police's Cyber Crimes Unit.
The matter will be prosecuted by the New Jersey Office of the Attorney General, according to state police.
"Maybe one day we'll stop posting about shrimp, perhaps when the ocean runs out of them," state police wrote at the conclusion of its post.
Spencer Kent may be reached at skent@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @SpencerMKent. Find the Find NJ.com on Facebook.