This Staten Islander is hellbent on having a bootleg, backyard fireworks show.
Robert Schmidt, 48, was busted in New Jersey for illegally possessing 39 boxes of illegal fireworks — his third such arrest in recent years, sources said.
He was caught in Elizabeth, N.J., driving a rental van packed with so many crates of fireworks that the bomb squad was called in, according to the Port Authority.
The fireworks had colorful names like “Bombastic Barrage Box,” “Thunder Bomb,” “Warrior Recon” and “Times Square Fireworks Assortment.”
Port Authority Police Officer Ed Benenati pulled Schmidt over near the Goehals Bridge, at about 4:30 p.m., said Joseph Pentangelo, a PAPD spokesman.
He was stopped after cops received an anonymous tip about him transporting fireworks, according to a source.
Schmidt is charged with sale or possession of prohibited fireworks and disorderly person, Pentangelo said.
It’s not the first time Schmidt has found himself in trouble over fireworks, records show.
Last year, on July 6, he was busted in front of his Isabella Avenue home with an estimated $450 worth of fireworks in the trunk of his 2009 Dodge Caravan.
He was charged with the unlawful sale of fireworks, an offense punishable by up to a year in jail.
Douglas Auer, a spokesman for the Staten Island District Attorney, said that case was still pending, with Schmidt’s next court case set for July 7.
Six days later, Schmidt was pulled over in his vehicle Staten Island, on South Avenue and Glen Street, and a4rrested for two cigarette-related crimes –the possession of untaxed cigarets and evading cigar or tobacco product taxes.
Details of that case were not immediately available.
Schmidt was also arrested in June 2006 for a fireworks-related offense, the details of which were also not available.
— Additional reporting Daniel Prendergast