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Ex-con Daniel Margulies, 32, of Teaneck bolted from the Walgreens at the Plaza at Hillsdale with several items late Sunday afternoon, Feb. 18, Officer Jordan Bruce reported.
He made it to the train station when Bruce and Officer Sean Marro him moments later.The officers chased him down Broadway before Margulies began ducking through backyards, he said.
To call Margulies “known to police” overstates the obvious. He’s been arrested dozens of times over the past decade for a variety of crimes, both petty and serious.
Records in Hackensack and Trenton show Margulies in and out of prison and jail during that period. Several times he was released pending trial only to re-offend.
Margulies once broke into the Ice House in Hackensack during an adult league hockey tournament and rifled lockers, stealing nearly $1,000 in cash and belongings from a team from Riverdale, NY, known as the “Rusty Nuts.”
A defense attorney once told a judge in Hackensack later that year that Margulies was "ravaged by addiction."
The judge was more blunt, calling his client "a train wreck."
Authorities tried drug court multiple times, to no avail.
Although Margulies began as a shoplifter, burglar and petty thief, his crimes quickly escalated became more violent.
In the wake of Hurricane Sandy, Margulies and two companions stopped at the Essex Street BP station in Lodi and noticed the power still out.
They drove back to Teaneck, got disguises and a gun and then returned, county prosecutors said at the time.
Margulies waited behind the wheel of the getaway car as one of his accomplices pointed a gun at the attendant, forced him to open the store register and fled with about $800 and a pack of Newports. The trio then sped off.
Margulies began a series of New Jersey state prison stretches -- for that robbery, other crimes and accompanying parole violations -- in November 2018.
He was released this past June following the most recent, records show.
Total time served in four prison terms: Three years.
As Hillsdale police searched for Margulies shortly before 4:30 p.m. Sunday, citizens reported seeing someone looking into cars.
Officers from Emerson, Old Tappan, Oradell, Park Ridge, Washington Township, Westwood and Woodcliff Lake converged on the area, along with a Bergen County Sheriff’s K-9 unit, forming a perimeter.
Margulies was in handcuffs less than a half-hour later after he tried hiding in a Dumpster, Bruce said. A search of the area turned up illegal prescription drugs and paraphernalia, he noted.
Bruce and Marro brought Margulies back to headquarters and charged him with shoplifting and possession of both drugs and the paraphernalia.
They then sent him to the Bergen County Jail, where he remained on Tuesday.
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