Police Make Two Arrests in Downtown Robbery of Elderly Resident

Police arrested two Cranford twenty-somethings Thursday and charged them with robbery from an elderly resident in the downtown earlier in the day.

Richard Seeger, 24, and Andrew Cannon, 21, were arrested following an investigation in to the robbery, which involved an 83-year old female resident being shoved to the ground and having her purse stolen. Police have charged Seeger and Cannon with robbery and theft.

Police are reporting that the victim was shoved to the ground by a male suspect on Miln Street near Cleveland Plaza around 3 p.m. on Thursday. The suspect then took her purse and fled to a waiting four door car driven by a second male. A 13-year old resident witnessed the attack and called police while assisting the victim.

The victim was transported to Overlook Hospital in Summit with non life threatening injuries and was released on Thuesday evening.

A police investigation traced the suspects to a local convenience store, where they had been witnessed shopping earlier in the day. A description of Seeger and Cannon's clothing tied them to the shopping trip. During a viewing of security camera footage from the convenience store and footage from a security camera which captured the robbery, police matched the pair.

While police were in the store, Seeger and Cannon entered to purchase cigarettes. The pair were detained by police and were arrested following questioning. They have been charged with robbery, a second degree crime, and theft, a third degree crime.

The investigation located the purse in a sewer on the 600 block of Riverside Drive. A response by several police cars recovered the purse from the sewer around 7 p.m. on Thursday evening. The wallet and an unknown amount of cash was missing from the purse.

Seeger and Cannon are being held in the Union County jail in lieu of $50,000 bail and their first court appearence will be on June 23.