Red Bank, NJ man charged with setting three fires, robbing pharmacy

RED BANK — In about half a day's time Monday afternoon into early Tuesday morning, authorities say a 24-year-old borough resident set three small fires in his hometown but also spared a few minutes to travel to a neighboring municipality and hold up a pharmacy.

Anthony Sambogna was arrested Tuesday in Little Silver, the borough where the pharmacy is located, according to a release Thursday from the Monmouth County Prosecutor's Office. The robbery incident, in which he allegedly threatened a clerk while demanding cash from a register, had occurred just before 5:30 p.m. the day before.

Investigators said that happened after the first but before the second and third fires that Sambogna is accused of starting in Red Bank, beginning around 12:30 p.m. Monday when an accelerant was used to spark flames in the parking lot of Red Bank Catholic High School.

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That night, in the 11 p.m. hour, an accelerant was again used to start a fire along natural gas lines outside a bagel shop in Red Bank, the prosecutor's office said.

That fire went out on its own, according to authorities, but was followed by another one sometime after midnight Tuesday in shrubbery at the same location, which had to be extinguished by a responding police officer.

Sambogna is charged with second-degree robbery and three counts of second-degree aggravated arson, and is lodged in the Monmouth County Correctional Institution pending a court hearing.

Anyone with further information about this week's incidents is asked to call the prosecutor's office at 800-533-7443 or Red Bank police at 732-530-2700.

Patrick Lavery is a reporter and anchor for New Jersey 101.5. You can reach him at patrick.lavery@townsquaremedia.com

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