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Outlets in Jackson Township had been a target for professional shoplifting rings, police said.
Identifying this problem, the agency set up daily proactive details consisting of plain clothes patrol officers and members of the SEU to be at the outlets in attempt to both prevent and apprehend these subjects.
Due to efforts by multiple jurisdictions, and our detective bureau along with the help of Loss Prevention specialists, an out-of-state professional shoplifting group was identified.
This ring out of Baltimore was reportedly responsible for numerous acts of shoplifting in several surrounding states, police said.
The group was responsible for almost $60,000 in stolen items from Jackson Premium Outlets alone, police said.
During the course of an Oct. 29 police detail, a suspect vehicle was positively identified by officers.
Upon exiting the Under Armour store, police officers confronted members of the alleged ring, who promptly tried to evade officers by either running away or physically trying to resist officer’s efforts, police said. One of the females, during the course of fleeing from officers, assaulted a Good Samaritan who was trying to assist law enforcement by trying to stop a suspect from getting away, police said.
All four suspects were apprehended by officers and transported the police department for processing.
Anthony Jones, D’Arnajai Raheem, Shontaz Wingate and Veronica Motes were all charged with organized retail theft enterprise shoplifting, obstruction and hindering apprehension, police said.
In addition, Motes was charged with robbery.
All four were being held in Ocean County Jail.
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