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Officer Steven Nepola headed to the Route 17 store after the call came in just after 6 last night.
The manager reported seeing a man in a trench coat with his hand in the purse of a woman he was sitting behind. The thief fled, but the manager followed him, getting a good look at him and his car, Lt. John Scully said this morning.
Nepola immediately issued the descriptions on his police radio. Moments later, on IKEA Drive, Officers Mike Pollaro and Keith Bland stopped a car with Pennsylvania plates.
The driver, 32-year-old Shaheed Calhoun of Philadelphia, was driving without a license, they said. There was also a motor vehicle warrant out for his arrest out of Titusville, Scully said.
Calhoun was later identified as the pickpocket. He was charged with attempted theft, given a motor vehicle summonses and taken to the Bergen County Jail, where he was being held on $5,000 bail, with a detainer on him from Titusville.
The 43-year-old Ramsey woman told officers she had her purse hanging on the back of her chair and didn’t know what was happening until the manager intervened.
It appears nothing was missing, she said.
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