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ORIGINAL STORY:
FORT LEE, N.J. -- A popular rapper-turned-reality TV personality and a companion were robbed of $183,000 in jewelry and cash in Fort Lee by three men -- two of whom were caught by police after a wild chase across the George Washington Bridge into Manhattan.
"[Monday] morning was probably 1 of the worst scariest nights of my life." Safaree Samuels tweeted after the holdup.
"Two dudes with guns just ran up on me," the "Love and HipHop" star said during a visit to Power 105.1 FM. "Had me face down on the ground with a gun to my head."
His Instagram page also has a photo of the red fur coat that Samuels was wearing when, he said, the robbers ordered him and Corey Bryant to the ground at gunpoint in Fort Lee before fleeing on foot with the valuables around 2 a.m. Monday.
Responding Officers Patrick Cillo and Natalie Mateus spotted a black Cadillac Escalade without front or rear license plates, its headlights off, make a sharp U-turn and head to the bridge’s upper level as they approached, Capt. Matthew Hintze said.
Fort Lee police notified their NYPD and Port Authority colleagues that they were trying to stop the vehicle, which smashed into the southbound Henry Hudson Parkway ramp median and kept going, Hintze said.
The Escalade finally broke down and came to a full stop at the West 158th Street exit, he said.
Three occupants jumped out and ran across several lanes of traffic into a wooded area.
The NYPD soon after caught two of them. They were identified as Shawn Harewood and Jonathan Ricketts.
Both were charged with first-degree robbery and were being held in the city pending extradition to New Jersey. Additional charges were pending, Hintze said.
The third suspect remained at large, he said Tuesday afternoon.
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