Ship Bottom Police Arrest Two In Wedding Car Theft

Two men are in the Ocean County Jail in Toms River after Ship Bottom police charged them with breaking into the car of a Virginia woman in town for a wedding.

The arrests came after four search warrants were issued between Saturday night and Sunday night on two homes and two cars, Detective Michael Nash said.

Henry K. Hoerrmann III, North Beach and Kevin Scanlan, 33, Livingston, were both charged with burglary, theft, credit card fraud and criminal mischief, Nash said.

An elderly Tennessee woman who had saved up to attend her niece's wedding discovered that money, credit cards, identification and her passport after her car was broken into while she was at the ceremony, Detective Michael Nash said.

The woman and her husband had problems getting a flight home without any identification and had to deal with insurance and credit card companies, Nash said.

Police in August released several security camera photos of a man believed to be involved in the crimes exiting a local store and distributed them to Barnegat-Manahawkin Patch.

"Ship Bottom police would like to express our heartfelt gratitude to all who assisted us in capturing those involved in this crime," Nash said.

The Stafford, Long Beach Township and Surf City police departments assisted in the search warrant executions and arrests, he said.

The story was even more poignant since the 26-year-old bride was supposed to be married last September, but was diagnosed with Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma and had to postpone her wedding, he said.

The bride went through months of chemotherapy and radiation and at one point, was not expected to survive. When she gradually recovered, she decided to go ahead with the wedding, Nash said.

"Our victim, who is from a low-to-middle income family from Tennessee, decided that no matter how much it would cost them, she and her husband were going to make the trip to New Jersey for the wedding," he said.