Crime & Safety

Lacey Cops Arrest Two After Mailbox Money Drop

Pair being held on variety of charges

A text message instructing a relative to leave money in a Forked River mailbox for pickup led to the arrest of two local residents.

Lacey officers staked out a mailbox on Weehawken Avenue after a resident there, Ashley Frank, 21, had sent a text message to a relative requesting $200 be placed in a mailbox, purportedly so she could be freed from being held against her will, police said.

Officers staked out the mailbox and identified the driver of a vehicle, Raymond Ouellette, 28, of Beachwood, was picking up the money that had eventually been left. Frank, according to Ouellette, police said, was staying at a house on Nautilus Boulevard at the time, where police eventually found her.

Ouellette said he was instructed by Frank to pick up the money.

Upon seeing officers pull up, Frank fled from the front yard of the Nautilus Boulevard residence to the inside of the house, where she was eventually arrested, according to police.

She was taken into custody on a "no bail" warrant from the Ocean County Sheriff's Department as well as for possession of two wax folds of heroin, which were discovered during a post-arrest search, police said.

Frank was being held, according to jail records, on charges of manufacturing or distributing cocaine.

While at the scene, officers located 22-year-old Brittani Koppenjan of Point Pleasant Beach, who was arrested on a $10,000 Ocean County Sheriff’s Department warrant and an active $500 Toms River Township warrant, police said.

Koppenjan was arrested and transported to Lacey Police headquarters where she was processed and turned over to the Ocean County Sheriff’s Department for commitment to the Ocean County Jail.

According to jail records, Koppenjan was being held on charges of drug possession and possession with intent to use or sell hypodermic syringes.


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