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An activated burglar alarm along with a concerned citizen’s call that someone had broken in through the front door brought Officers Edar Merza and Jake Rutkowski to the Speedy Mart on Haledon Avenue shortly after 4 a.m.
They spotted Joseph Holman running from the scene and took off after him – through backyards and over fences – before catching and subduing him following a brief struggle on Clinton Street and North 11th Street in Paterson, Lt. George Guzman said.
Holman, who was wanted on a warrant out of Bergen County, was carrying cash and lottery scratch-off tickets, Guzman said.
Holman already had a criminal record involving burglary, theft and other offenses in several New Jersey counties.
He’d only just been released from the Bergen County Jail this past Jan. 11 after serving what became two years for assaulting two Edgewater police officers following a shoplifting.
SEE: Edgewater Officers Injured In Scuffle With Target Shoplifter
Holman this time was charged with burglary, theft, resisting arrest and criminal mischief before being turned over to Bergen County sheriff’s officers for the warrant.
"We are grateful for the professional men and women of the Haledon Police Department,” said Speedy Mart owner Sam Patel, who got his money and lottery tickets back. “They are truly the best."
Guzman, meanwhile, praised the citizen who called about the break-in.
“If you see something say something has been a very effective motto,” the lieutenant said.
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ALSO SEE: A trio of teenage car thieves -- only one of them an adult -- were captured by Wyckoff police with help from a resident’s doorbell cam, footprints in the snow and officers from neighboring departments.
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