Today, the light that once perched on the front of Ayres' cruiser sits in a glass case in the Police Department's lobby, surrounded by vintage police radios, badges, photos, uniforms, weapons and keepsakes that document the history of South Jersey law enforcement.

Moorestown is home to a small museum of police artifacts begun a decade ago by Sgt. Randy Pugh.

Though it started with local memorabilia, so many people from outside Moorestown have donated items that the museum has outgrown its display cases.

"A lot of people have things sitting around in drawers, and if they have a chance to display them, they'll jump at it," Pugh said. "It makes people very proud to see something that once belonged to a family member being put out for others to see."

Scout troops sometimes visit the museum, and parents bring their children. Often, people who donated mementos come to see them on display.

Moorestown officials will likely renovate the police building or move the department as part of a plan to reorganize the town's municipal buildings in the next few years, and Pugh hopes he will have room for a bigger museum. For now, he stashes at home the boxes of items he has no room to display, such as photography equipment used to take pictures at crime scenes.

Pugh, who joined the department 33 years ago, launched the museum after he began research for a history he planned to write about the 121-year-old department.

As he interviewed people, they handed over shoe boxes full of items that belonged to their fathers, brothers and other relatives who had served on the force.

"Somehow word got out," Pugh said. "Not that I was writing a book, but that I was collecting memorabilia."

He soon had enough to fill a room. Along with the badges, radios, and cracked leather gun holsters, there are programs from community dances, department Christmas cards, and yellowed newspaper clippings.

One case shows off batons, rusted handcuffs, and weapons including a Thompson submachine gun and a tear-gas gun.

To Pugh, though, the most significant piece in the collection is the light from Ayres' patrol car.

The crash sent pieces of the car all over the road. Some years ago, Pugh learned that a Moorestown firefighter picked up the light and took it back to the fire station. Decades later, it was still there.

Ayres is one of only two Moorestown police officers who have lost their lives in the line of duty. Yet for many years, his story was largely forgotten.

After putting the light on display, Pugh tracked down Ayres' survivors and successfully petitioned to have the patrolman's name included on the National Law Enforcement Memorial in Washington.

That light "might not be the neatest thing in here, but to me it's my favorite because of what it led to," he said.

Pugh has also made his own contribution: a paper coffee cup, circa 1976, from Wawa.

"The guys made fun of me for that," Pugh said.

If You Go

The Moorestown Police Department lobby, at 111 W. Second St., is open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily.