Police Respond To 'Incident' At Maplewood Wawa Thursday

MAPLEWOOD, NJ — The Maplewood police responded to a dispute at the Maplewood Wawa on Thursday morning in which a customer allegedly displayed a knife, they said.

Police said they responded to 1511 Springfield Ave. around 7:09 a.m. regarding a "dispute between customer and employee."

The gas attendant told police he'd had a verbal altercation with an unknown male, police said.

The man went inside to report the employee to management, police said. But once inside, the customer "allegedly brandish[ed] a small pocket knife," police said.

Police said the customer didn't threaten or assault anyone. Police said he left the store, entered a two-door sedan, and headed eastbound on Springfield Avenue.

Police described him as "a 40-year-old black male, approximately 5’5’’ in height, skinny build wearing a green hooded sweatshirt, black jacket and blue jeans."

The police had sent out an alert to residents at 7:31 a.m. Thursday morning saying, "Alert: Police presence on Springfield Avenue (Wawa #1511 Springfield Ave.) There was an incident at Wawa (approx. 0709 hrs) and there is a police presence in the area. Nothing active at this time."

Lt. Michael Palmerezzi said that an initial investigation showed there were no threats or injuries, and that police were reviewing video of the incident.

Over the last year, police had put out numerous alerts about robberies and car thefts in town, including one at Wawa last summer.

Read recent Maplewood public safety and crime stories on Patch here.