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Brian Sweeney, 31, of Bayonne had just fled a Stuyvesant Avenue pharmacy in Lyndhurst with 30 sticks of deodorant worth $167 when he crashed an older-model Chevy SUV with bogus license plates into a utility pole on the Belleville Turnpike in Kearny, Lyndhurst Detective Lt. Vincent Auteri said.
An off-duty Jersey City police officer in uniform happened upon the scene and got out to help, Auteri said.
Assuming he was being arrested, an injured Sweeney bailed out of the SUV and ran into the marshy meadowlands, the lieutenant said.
Lyndhurst officers responding to the shoplifting call heard about the crash on their radios and headed to the scene, as did their colleagues from North Arlington, he said.
Officers from the three departments formed a perimeter and eventually scooped up a wet and injured Sweeney, Auteri said. He was taken to Hackensack University Medical Center to be treated for injuries sustained in the crash.
Sweeney was charged with various offenses, including shoplifting, before being released pending court action in Lyndhurst and Kearny.
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