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Police responding to a suspicious-persons call found ex-con Vincent Winfield, 32, sitting outside the La Quinta Hotel on eastbound Route 3 with a dog and luggage, Detective Lt. Robert Bracken said.
A woman who witnesses said was with him had left, Bracken said.
Winfield at first gave the officers a bogus ID before they discovered that he was wanted by federal authorities, the lieutenant said.
The officers began checking his arm for a matching tattoo to confirm his identity when Winfield took off – leaving the dog and luggage behind, Bracken said.
They chased him on foot toward the back of the hotel and through a neighborhood off of River Road, where Winfield jumped over a bridge railing and dropped down into a condominium complex and out of sight, the lieutenant said.
Police established a perimeter and about an hour later spotted Winfield walking near a wooded area along Route 3, he said.
Winfield ran again – only this time he was caught.
At headquarters, police opened the luggage and found the meth, a 9mm blank pistol and a couple thousand dollars in cash, along with GHB, a ski mask, handcuffs, more than 20 stolen credit cards and the ledger, Bracken said.
They charged Winfield with being a fugitive from justice, resisting arrest, obstruction and hindering, as well as drug and weapons possession counts that include being a convicted felon in possession of a firearm.
Clifton Animal Control took custody of the dog.
Police didn’t have to go far to find Winfield’s companion – they didn’t have to go anywhere at all.
A day after his arrest, 27-year-old Paige Leah Rosado of West New York, came to headquarters to retrieve some items left behind, Bracken said.
Police arrested Rosado on an outstanding warrant, as well as their own charges of wrongful impersonation, forgery, credit card theft and fraudulent use and possession of GHB and drug paraphernalia.
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