A 23-year-old Lyndhurst man was arrested and charged after allegedly threatening a juvenile Wendy’s employee and taking packaged desserts from the restaurant, according to The Observer’s account of police statements. Davon Duiguid faces charges of making terroristic threats, shoplifting, criminal restraint and endangering the welfare of a juvenile. He was held at Bergen County Jail pending court after being charged on a complaint warrant, the report said.
Police said the encounter began Tuesday morning, Nov. 10, as the employee, in uniform and walking to work, approached a point about a quarter-mile north of the Wendy’s on Ridge Road. The employee told police Duiguid threatened to shoot him if he did not provide food; the teen said he feared for his life, then walked the remaining quarter-mile to the restaurant with Duiguid beside him. The report says Duiguid kept his hands in his jacket pockets, creating the appearance that he might have a weapon, but it does not establish that he had one.
At the restaurant, an employee reportedly saw Duiguid conceal three packaged desserts. Police said employees and patrons identified him, and officers later arrested him near the former Kingsland train station. The Observer reported that surveillance footage captured the incident and that Duiguid admitted during processing to making the statements.
Context: youth work rules and a separate threat case
New Jersey requires workers under 18 to have an employment certificate or a special permit for each employer, according to state Department of Labor and Workforce Development guidance. The police account did not give the employee’s exact age or address employment paperwork, so it does not establish which youth-work rules applied.
A separate New Jersey case involved an alleged threat against a grocery-store employee: News 12 New Jersey reported that on Aug. 28, 2026, a man at Food Universe on Lexington Avenue in Passaic, New Jersey, allegedly threatened a worker and displayed a realistic-looking replica handgun designed to shoot plastic pellets. The incidents share allegations of threats against retail workers, but the reported details differ, and two cases do not show how common such incidents are.
