Fair Lawn police pick off two fugitives

YOU READ IT HERE FIRST: Fair Lawn police snagged two men wanted on warrants in different towns after a supermarket employee flagged one of the cops down before dawn today and said they’d been acting suspiciously in the store.

Jerry DeMarco

03/22/2011 11:39 p.m.

Officer Eric Eleshewich later spotted the pair walking near the ShopRite on Maple Avenue, so he summoned backup.

Once Officers Sean Macys and Michael O’Brien showed up, it was found that both men — Lucas Kowalski, 25, from Ridgefield Park, and 33-year-old Raul Velez of Paterson — had several active arrest warrants in their names.

Ridgefield Park took custody of Lucas, and police from Long Branch came north to pick up Velez.

Velez was scheduled to serve 180 days in the Passaic County Jail for drug possession.

Lucas, meanwhile, was released barely five months ago and ordered to pay a fine for fencing stolen goods, records show.

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