Police Chase Shoplifting Suspect At South Brunswick Stop & Shop

SOUTH BRUNSWICK, NJ — South Brunswick police officers taking a report for shoplifting at the Stop & Shop Thursday afternoon witnessed a different suspect committing a separate theft right in front of them and chased him down, police said.

At 1:15 p.m. Thursday, Officer Ryan Bartunek and Detective Monica Posteraro were at the Stop & Shop grocery store at 24 Summerfield Blvd. in the Dayton section. They were speaking to a manager about a theft that took place a half an hour earlier in which the suspect had already left.

As they spoke, the manager noticed a different suspect, Vincent Stephens, 34, of New Brunswick attempting to walk out of the store with a shopping cart with nearly $400 dollars worth of food, police said. The officers told Stephens to stop, but he ran into the parking lot and around the side of the building.

Officers captured Stephens as he ran towards Rt. 522. Stephens, who was just released from the County Correction Center a day earlier, was charged with shoplifting and resisting arrest. He was lodged in the Middlesex County Correction Center pending his court appearance.

It is not clear if the two shoplifting incidents are connected.