On May 25, members of the Saddle Brook Police Department issued a summons to a worker at the Yummy Yummy store located at 506 Saddle River Road for selling Glamour cigarettes to underage youth.
At approximately 3:13 pm, Saddle Brook Police Capt. Vincent Laurentino and Detective Sgt. Thomas Johnson were stationed at the intersection of Saddle River Road and Pehle Avenue to assist a crossing guard who was being harassed by local juveniles.
Before the aforementioned incident took place, Laurentino was sitting in an unmarked police vehicle in the Carucci’s parking lot located at 495 Saddle River Road across the street from the Yummy Yummy store.
Laurentino observed a juvenile exit the store with a pack of cigarettes in his left hand. He approached the juvenile and asked for the cigarettes. Laurentino noticed the pack had an Ohio tax stamp on the back of it. When questioned about buying the pack of smokes, the youth stated he had bought them for $6.50 from a woman behind the counter at Yummy Yummy.
When Laurentino and Johnson entered the store they advised the woman the youth had pointed out, Pengying Zhuang, 39, of Saddle Brook and that they had just detained a juvenile for buying a pack of Newports from the store. The woman admitted selling the pack and the officers then asked Zhuang to show them the out-of-state tax stamp cigarettes. Zhuang proceeded to take a bag of cigarettes out from under the store counter. According to the police report, the bag contained five packs of Newports with Ohio tax stamps and eight packs of Marlboros with Virginia tax stamps.
Zhang was charged with being in possession of goods without the required New Jersey tax stamp, sale of cigarettes to a person not licensed by New Jersey and sale of cigarettes to a person under the age of 19.