Thieves struck Washington Crossing on Aug. 30, Ringwood Manor in March

BY TOM HESTER SR.

NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM

A Hopewell man and a teenage boy have been arrested for burglarizing a virtually priceless collection of Revolutionary War artifacts at Washington Crossing State Park during a blackout caused by Hurricane Irene on Aug. 30.

Timothy Davis-Napier, 18, and an unidentified juvenile, 17, were arrested Monday night by Hopewell police and charged with burglary and theft. They are accused of stealing eight flintlock pistols, eight knives and other artifacts from exhibit cases at the park’s visitors center.

It was the second theft of valuable artifacts from a state park in the past six months.

In March, artifacts including a Jasper Cropsey Hudson River School of Art painting of Greenwood Lake and Civil War era guns were stolen from the Ringwood Manor historic site in Ringwood State Park in northern Bergen County.

The Ringwood painting and artifacts have not been recovered but the pistols, knives and other artifacts taken from Washington Crossing were recovered in the woods in Hopewell.

“They’re important artifacts from the American Revolution, Larry Hajna, a state Department of Environmental Protection spokesman, told The Times of Trenton. “They’re our heritage. It would have been a big loss but fortunately, the items were recovered.”

The artifacts are part of the impressive Revolutionary War era collection of 82-year-old Harry Kels Swan of Somerset County. The collection was begun in 1795 by one of Swan’s ancestors and has been built over 18 generations. During the blackout, the collection went unprotected.

New Jersey Sierra Club Director Jeff Tittel cited the state cutback in park personnel as a reason for the Washington Crossing and Ringwood thefts.

“Sierra Club has long called on the state to better protect the pieces of history stored at our state parks that belong to all residents of New Jersey,” Tittel said. This is the second time in six months that our historical treasures have been the target of theft in our state parks. This latest robbery shows our parks and historic artifacts are not properly protected.

“These thefts are not only a tragedy and loss for the people and state of New Jersey, but it shows the impact of budget cuts and the failure of leadership at the DEP when it comes to protecting our parks and historic artifacts,” Tittel said. Not having enough personal or money to upgrade security systems to adequately secure irreplaceable and priceless gifts makes these problems worse.

“The kids knew the alarms were not working with power failures from the flooding,” Tittel said. “Why was there no battery backup alarm system for power failures or more state park police put on duty as a result?

“Many of our state parks have boarded up historic buildings or facilities,” Tittel said. “We have seen historic buildings fall apart or catch on fire because of neglect at Batso Village and White's Bog. The Kuser Mansion at High Point was knocked down because of failure to fund maintenance. The historic Victorian barns at Ringwood Manor were burnt down by vandals. When a flood hit the Van Wick House in Bergen County there were not enough caretakers to move historic artifacts out of harm's way. These are our legacies that belong in New Jersey and to not have them adequately protected is disgraceful.”

Larry Ragonese, a DEP spokesman, responded to Tittel's criticism.

"State Park Police and other uniformed personnel were working 24-7 to rescue people, deal with hurricane and flooding and other storm-related human emergencies," he said. "Their focus was not on the possibility that two foolish young people would take advantage of a hurricane to break into a state building.

"The state park building (the visitors' center) does have a modern alarm system, with a battery backup," Ragonese said.

"But the length of the power outage outlasted the battery backup.That's when the thieves took advantage of a bad situation, breaking into a building and stealing historic artifacts while our state personnel were busy helping people affected by the storm.

“Also, we did capture and arrest the thieves in a timely manner, just a few days after the incident," Ragonese said. "We were not lucky to capture the thieves. It was done through good and thorough police work.

"Also, we did recover the historic items, which are back at Washington Crossing. Mr. Tittel seems interested only in dredging up negative stories about the DEP. He has chosen not to be part of the solution in improving and enhancing our park system, and in finding ways to generate new revenues needed to maintain our parks."