Crime & Safety

Alleged 50-Year-Old Bike Thief Tops Weird Crime News

Also, a citizen crime-fighter gets his very own day in Cherry Hill.

Each week, Patch combs through the more shocking, surprising and often absurd alleged criminal acts and police-related incidents that unfold around the region. Here’s what went on last week for “OMG PD.”

You’re never too old to ride a bike: Allegedly stealing them, however, is another story. 50-year-old Brian Grayson, of Cherry Hill, swiped two bikes from a neighbor’s yard, police said, but got popped shortly thereafter, when a Merchantville officer spotted him riding one of the bikes.

What we have here is a failure to communicate: Negotiations over loudspeakers didn’t work. Phone calls went unanswered. But when SWAT team members crashed through his front door, Yuuki Nemoto, 26, had a change of heart. The Gloucester Township resident was a fugitive after allegedly failing to show for court on theft charges, but quickly surrendered following the 90-minute standoff.

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Hiding in plain sight: Ahmet Bolat, 42, was wanted by the Gloucester County Prosecutor’s Office—and as it turns out, he was working in the kitchen at a diner less than a mile from the county courthouse in Woodbury, where he was snagged to face charges he violated his probation.

That’s not how it works, part 2: Last week, we told you about a man who was arrested by Mount Laurel Police after he allegedly tried to walk away from a ticket. This time, a Moorestown man allegedly tried staying in his car when officers figured out he was wanted on a warrant from Merchantville. Instead, Anthony Galiazzi got arrested for resisting arrest, police said.

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A really busy guy: Eric R. Harbinson, 29, was up to all sorts of misdeeds over about a week this winter, according to police in multiple towns. He’d already been charged with robbery in Maple Shade and Cherry Hill for three alleged armed robberies at drugstores, and now Haddon Township Police have added another to the docket, charging Harbinson in a Jan. 30 robbery at the Dollar Tree in Westmont Plaza.

One of the good guys: You might remember this Merchantville man from a couple months ago, when he foiled an alleged purse-snatcher outside Pathmark in Cherry Hill. Township officials turned around and declared April 9 as Gerald Smith Day as a way of saying thank you for his actions.


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