Fleeing Bay State Shoplifter with Warrants Leads to K-9 Hunt: Cops

SALEM, NH — A Bay State man with at least two warrants was arrested last night after an alleged shoplifting incident at the Mall at Rockingham Park led to a chase through the woods, according to police. Joseph McGrade, 21, of Leominster, MA, was arrested on Dec. 20, 2016, for felony willful concealment, falsifying physical evidence, and two warrants.

Editor’s note: This post was derived from information supplied by the Salem Police Department. It does not indicate a conviction. This link explains the name removal request process for NH Patch police reports.

Police were sent to the mall at just before 10:30 p.m. last know for a report of a shoplifting incident at Sears. A loss prevention employee reported that a man was fleeing the store with merchandise, according to Capt. Joel P. Dolan of the Salem Police Department.

“As loss prevention attempted to apprehend the male, he fled on foot toward Pleasant Street,” Dolan stated. “Responding officers were able to get a description and quickly set up a perimeter in the area.”

A K-9 was called in officers attempted to flush the man out of the woods. The was later located by patrol officers on South Policy Street, allegedly identified as the man involved in the incident, and taken and transported to police headquarters while two officers retraced McGrade’s alleged path and located all of the stolen merchandise along the way.

At headquarters, police learned that McGrade was wanted on warrants out of Hudson and an extraditable warrant out of Florida.

According to reports online, McGrade was wanted by Hudson police on a theft by unauthorized taking or transfer charge from January 2015, police noted. In January 2015, according to the Lowell Sun, while living in Dracut, he was arrested for driving after revocation or suspension, possession of controlled/narcotic drugs, transporting drugs in a motor vehicle. He was arrested again in October 2015 in Lowell on a fugitive from justice charge. In February, he was arrested in Tewksbury, MA, for assault to rob, armed, two counts of witness intimidation, conspiracy, and a fugitive from justice charge out of Florida.