92.7 WOBM News Flash Briefing: August 31

https://jerseyshorepodcasts.townsquaredigital.com/WOBMFM201708311700.mp3

Who placed a realistic, but fake, pipe bomb outside a Toms River car dealership, and why? Questions remain hanging after a tense Thursday morning on Route 37 that brought a New Jersey State Police incendiary squad to Honda of Toms River. Using robotics and x-ray devices, they determined that it was not a threat.

In Texas, Harvey is down to tropical depression status annd moving beyond the Harris County are that it pounded for a week. The death toll has risen to 35 and is expected to increase as flood waters subside and searches become more complete.

Here at the shore, as elsewhere, we feel the effects of the Texas hurricane at the gas pumps. AAA Mid-Atlantic recorded a four-cent overnight hike in Ocean and Monmouth to $2.47 for a gallon of regular grade, nine cents higher than last week and a cent higher than the national average. The agency predicts $2.50 in the confluence of temporarily-shuttered refineries and Labor Day weekend fuel demands. then a steep drop in late September.

Two more home repair firms join the New Jersey Attorney General's list of alleged Sandy fraudsters. CRA Construction of Monmouth's Ocean Township and Louisiana-based TMB Services allegedly took money originating in the state RREM program for Superstorm-related repairs wither never completed, or never begun.

Ocean County's first rum distillery opens in Forked River. Peter Martorelli tells us that he left his career in sales and marketing to follow a dream and add to the small business revenue stream that powers the shore economy. He offers tours of Island Beach Distillery - named after his favorite New Jersey state park - and hopes to soon expand to package stores and bars.

A Lakewood woman who claimed to be held hostage by her boyfriend faces a criminal charge of circulating a false report. Police and an Ocean County SWAT team raced to the Kennedy Boulevard apartment after a woman, believed to be a relative, told police that she received an SOS text in the middle of the night. Elevia Morales left the apartment unharmed at about 6:30 AM, police said.

Observances throughout New Jersey and the country mark National Overdose Awareness Day. Locally, they take place tonight at Lacey United Methodist Church in Forked River, Iron Works Park in Mount Holly, and Main Street at Beachway in Keansburg.