Suspect caught following armed robbery in town

A suspect in an alleged armed robbery near Hoagie Haven last month was caught Thursday by the U.S. Marshals Service in his hometown of Chester, Pa.

On Oct. 9, an exchange arranged through the classified advertising website Craigslist turned violent when the suspect, Kenneth Bernard, allegedly pulled a gun and robbed two young men before he fled the scene, Princeton Borough Police said.

Bernard had arranged to meet the two men when he responded to a Craigslist ad posted by one victim, who said he was interested in buying iPhones with cash, according to a statement released Friday by Borough Police Chief David Dudeck.

At a meeting around midnight, Bernard allegedly drew the two victims, both 20 and from Edison, N.J., into a dark area near the sub shop and pointed a semi-automatic handgun at them. He allegedly got away with an iPhone and car keys before fleeing in an unknown car. The victims did not suffer any injuries.

Detectives were able to identify Bernard, though Capt. Nicholas Sutter of the Borough Police said in an e-mail that investigators did not work directly with Craigslist.

“They developed their own leads through different electronic investigative techniques [that] we cannot release,” he said.

The U.S. Marshals Service Regional Fugitive Task Force was called in to track Bernard, who was arrested on a warrant for armed robbery, aggravated assault and possession of a handgun for an unlawful purpose. The warrant set his bail at $140,000.

Bernard was in custody in Pennsylvania and was awaiting extradition to New Jersey as of Friday.

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Sutter cautioned that sites like Craigslist are “generally unregulated and unfortunately [sometimes used] by those with less-than-legitimate motives.”

“One should always be wary of meeting at odd times or odd places, and one should always try to identify the person they are dealing with to the best of their ability,” Sutter added.