Police Chase Retail-Theft Suspects From Ardmore to Narberth

An attempted robbery at the  on Coulter Avenue in Ardmore’s Suburban Square on Friday turned into a midday vehicular pursuit when two would-be shoplifters sped away in a blue Jeep Cherokee, Lower Merion police said Monday.

At around 2 p.m. that day, employees at the store observed two women acting suspicious, and then allegedly placing merchandise in their handbags, police said. Once the women sensed they were being watched, they ran from the store, with the employees following them and getting a look at the Jeep before the pair fled east on Montgomery Avenue.

Police, alerted to the robbery, spotted the Jeep, still headed east on Montgomery Avenue, as it entered Narberth. The driver refused to stop after police were in pursuit, police said. Another Lower Merion police officer, who happened to be in the area, set himself up to intercept the suspects by deploying “Stop Sticks” to the roadway. (See the attached YouTube video for a demonstration.)

Stop Sticks are long, triangular-shaped tubes with spikes inside, and can be thrown down on a road to deflate the tires of speeding or fleeing vehicles without causing a dangerous blowout. (The devices are not without danger to the cops that use them, as the video demonstrates.) They are laid down on one side of the street with a long string attached, which an officer holds on the other side of the street until the suspect vehicle approaches, at which point they are pulled into the path of the vehicle.

In this case, the suspect driver saw the device deployed and tried to avoid the trap, but two tires on one side of the Jeep rolled over the Stop Sticks. Hobbled, the driver of the Jeep managed to continue on through Narberth for about a mile before both suspects left the vehicle near Narberth Beverage at Iona Avenue, where the Jeep rolled over the curb. They were then caught by police on foot.

Arrested were Parisian Johnson, 27, of the 1700 block of S. Napa Street in Philadelphia, and Rahkeia Watson, also 27, of the unit block of N. 57th Street St. in Philadelphia.

Johnson, the driver, is charged with attempting to elude police, criminal conspiracy, retail theft and receiving stolen property, and reckless endangerment. Watson is charged with criminal conspiracy, retail theft and receiving stolen property.

Watson, with two prior criminal convictions, is being held in lieu of $3,000 cash bail. Johnson is being held in lieu of $6,000 cash bail. Both were taken to the Montgomery County Correctional Facility in Lower Providence Township, where they await a preliminary hearing at 9:45 a.m. Aug. 18 in Limerick in front of Magisterial District Court Judge Walter F. Gadzicki Jr, according to court records.