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Summoned by a neighbor, Sgt. Don Davidson and Officers Robert Hitson and Kyle Vergano stopped a black Honda with New York license plates on the Black Oak Ridge Road connector with Route 23 parallel to Bottle King just after 4 p.m. Wednesday, Detective Capt. Laurence Martin said.
In the back seat of the Zip car they could see two packages – one of which contained designer sneakers and a sweatsuit worth a combined $885 that had just been swiped from outside a Wayne home and another a designer woman’s jacket that cost $1,000 that was stolen out of Springfield, NJ.
“Several witnesses were available and interviewed at the scene of the theft who confirmed that the theft had taken place and that the suspects had been in the neighborhood using a ‘broken-down car’ story when confronted,” Martin said.
The officers arrested the trio: driver Taliek Jones, 19, of Newark and two passengers from Brooklyn, Devell Benjamin and Thafou Felix, both 18.
They charged the three with a variety of package- and identity-theft related offenses, among others, and impounded the car.
It was the second recent package theft arrest for Wayne police. The first also involved a suspect from Brooklyn who they said tracked deliveries via cellphone.
Jones was ordered held in the Passaic County Jail pending a detention hearing, while the other two were released on summonses.
Martin, meanwhile, asked any other law enforcement agencies or township residents experiencing similar incident to contact Detective Michael Polifrone at (973) 633 3533 or the main Investigative Division number at (973) 633-3530.
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