Hostage Situation At NJ Verizon Leads To Prison Sentence

VOORHEES, NJ — A 23-year-old man from Philadelphia was sentenced after he held Verizon Wireless employees hostage at gunpoint while he robbed the store, the United States Department of Justice said.

Tymair Harris, 23, was sentenced to 52 months in jail and three years of supervised release after he and co-conspirators planned and carried out the 2022 robbery at the store along Route 73.

On Nov. 28, 2022, Harris used a gun to force employees in the store's back room where a safe was held.

He held the group there at gunpoint, authorities said, while he and others took more than $61,000 worth of electronics.

After a nine-mile police chase that evening from Voorhees to Philadelphia, Harris was arrested.

He was charged in April 2025 and pleaded guilty in March to conspiracy to commit a robbery interfering with interstate commerce (Hobbs Act robbery).

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