Fairview Police: Cliffside Park Man Charged After Beer Theft From Liquor-Store Cellar

FAIRVIEW, N.J. — Fairview police charged a Cliffside Park man with burglary and theft after he allegedly took a 24-pack of Stella Artois from a liquor store’s basement storage area on Anderson Avenue, Deputy Police Chief John Pierotti Jr. said.

Eric Humberto Soria, 29, entered American Classic Liquors at 157 Anderson Avenue around 9:50 p.m. Friday, Sept. 25, 2026, purchased an item, left the store, noticed open cellar doors near the rear of the building, entered the basement storage area, took a 24-pack of Stella beer, and fled on foot without paying, Pierotti said. He was charged with burglary and theft by unlawful taking and taken to the Bergen County Jail, police said — language that reflects Fairview PD statements carried in Oct. 1, 2026 coverage. A public-web recheck on the afternoon of Fri., Oct. 2, 2026, found no first-appearance, detention, bond, or release update; Bergen TV is not inventing bond or statutes.

Charges are accusations. Soria is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.

What Fairview PD put on the record

According to statements attributed to Deputy Chief Pierotti and carried in local reporting on Oct. 1, 2026:

1. Soria first entered the licensed liquor store as a customer and bought something.
2. After leaving, he allegedly used open rear cellar doors to reach basement storage — not a smashed storefront entry described in the public account.
3. The alleged takeaway was a 24-pack of Stella beer; he fled on foot without paying.
4. Charges: burglary and theft by unlawful taking; custody: Bergen County Jail.

A check of Fairview PD’s public website (fairviewpd.com) on Oct. 1, 2026, found no standalone HTML press release for this arrest. A check of the Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office press-releases hub the same evening found no BCPO release naming Soria or this Fairview liquor theft. The public charging narrative available at draft time rests on Fairview PD via Pierotti.

Alleged prior Fairview / Cliffside Park arrests (separate cases)

Public reporting attributed to Fairview police has previously described two earlier cases involving Soria. They are not the liquor-cellar charges and remain allegations:

• June 2026 — criminal sexual contact: After a woman reported that a man on an electric one-wheel / scooter slapped her buttocks while she waited for a bus near Anderson Avenue and Henry Street in Fairview, police identified Soria. Pierotti’s June account (and parallel coverage) said he was charged with four counts of criminal sexual contact (one Fairview, three Cliffside Park) after admitting incidents in a joint interview with Fairview and Cliffside Park detectives. A possible North Bergen / Braddock Park incident was described as under investigation without charges at that time.
• August 2026 — lewdness: Pierotti said Soria was charged with lewdness after exposing himself to a waitress through the front window of a Fairview restaurant on Anderson Avenue (about 10:30 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 25, 2026, per contemporaneous coverage). He was given a summons and released, according to that account. The June sexual-contact case had also resulted in release after charging, per the same Pierotti summary.

Bergen TV is not asserting guilt on those prior matters and is not inventing victim identities, restaurant names, or court dispositions beyond what police have put on the record in public reporting.

What fits — and what still doesn’t

Who benefits from the public frame? Fairview PD gets a named arrest on a commercial corridor (Anderson Ave.) with a clear Stella/cellar story and a defendant already known to the department from summer cases. Readers get charges, an address, and jail custody language.

What doesn’t fully fit a tidy “smash-and-grab” burglary headline:

• Customer first, cellar second. The Pierotti account says Soria bought something as a legitimate customer before allegedly exploiting open rear cellar doors. That is different from a forced front-door break-in.
• Open doors. The public narrative turns on cellar doors already open — not a described tool attack or alarm trip. Why those doors were open, whether video shows the path, and how ID was made (store video vs. officer recognition vs. prints) are not in the statements reviewed.
• Six-day gap. Incident Friday Sept. 25; public charging story Thursday Oct. 1. Arrest/charge timing inside that window is not pinned in the Pierotti quotes located.
• Degree / statute silence. Public quotes say “burglary” and “theft by unlawful taking” without citing degree or N.J.S.A. numbers.
• Jail vs. first appearance. Pierotti said Soria was taken to Bergen County Jail. As of Oct. 1 PD statements in local coverage — and a Fri. Oct. 2, 2026 afternoon public-web recheck — no first-appearance, detention, bond, or release update was located. Do not invent bond or statutes.
• No BCPO byline. Consistent with a local PD case — but also means no prosecutor press package with statutes, complaint numbers, or mug hosted on bcpo.net.
• Mug provenance. Usable Fairview PD booking imagery located via June 2026 coverage (NJ1015 captioned “Fairview police”); the Oct. 1 burglary piece also credits Fairview PD for a Soria photo. A burglary-specific dated booking photo was not separately obtained.

Pattern angle (careful): Three public Fairview PD–attributed charging episodes along the Anderson Avenue corridor in about three months (June sexual contact, August lewdness, September cellar theft) raise an editorial question about release between cases — but court records on detention conditions were not pulled for this draft. Label everything as alleged / charged only.

Open questions

• Exact arrest/charge date between Sept. 25 and Oct. 1?
• Complaint numbers, statute cites, and degree of burglary/theft?
• Surveillance, cellar-door reason, and identification method?
• Current Bergen County Jail / first-appearance status? (Rechecked Oct. 2 afternoon ET — still no public update beyond Pierotti “taken to jail.”)
• Will Fairview PD post a primary release or supply a rights-cleared burglary mug?
• Any store-owner / licensee statement on the record?
• Disposition status of the June sexual-contact and August lewdness matters?