When your NJ town makes the news

Did anything serious enough ever happened in your town to make the news?

Think about what it must’ve been like to live in Hamilton in 1994 when the tragic Megan Kanka case happened. Or living in Westfield when the horrors inside the John List house were discovered. When it’s something that huge you know you’re going to see news vans and reporters in your neighborhood for weeks on end.

Nothing nearly that big but my town just made news in something that luckily ended peacefully. But there were stressful, dangerous moments along the way.

Wednesday in Flemington, police say a man with a sword smashed out windows at Deli Works on Route 31. Authorities say when police responded, the man was agitated and would not follow commands to drop the weapon. Keep in mind this had to have been quite a show as Route 31 is an extremely well-traveled road with many businesses.

Police say at one point the man actually began charging at them with the sword. This, of course, could have ended badly for him. But officers showed restraint and never use lethal force, according to police. Law enforcement says the man ran into the woods near HealthQuest.

After some time they were able to convince him to drop the sword and he was apprehended peacefully, according to police.

It’s crazy when things like this happen in your own town. I’ve been in that Deli Works. I can picture the windows police say were broken. I’ve been a member at that very HealthQuest. My daughter took dance there. I can picture the woods he ran into. My son works nearby.

So we asked our listeners about things that happened in their town big enough to make news. Here are just a few examples.

PJ called in remembering his town of Bordentown making national news when a post office there was found to have anthrax being shipped through it. He said news crews were there for a solid month.

Robin told us the story of when she lived in Manalapan in the mid-1980s and Kenneth Taylor, a prominent dentist in town, was eventually convicted of bludgeoning his wife to death. It was later turned into a mini-series on television.

Let’s hope for a relaxing Memorial Day weekend and a fun summer where no one‘s town has to make the news for anything other than parades.

Opinions expressed in the post above are those of New Jersey 101.5 talk show host Jeff Deminski only.

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