Egg Harbor Township police are looking for several young suspects who used a vehicle stolen from Atlantic City in a local crime spree.
The 2013 gray Honda CRV was first reported Monday when a young male driver left the Garden State Fuel in the township’s West Atlantic City section at 8:21 a.m. without paying, Lt. Robert Gray said.
Officers checked for the vehicle at that time but did not locate it.
At 3:36 p.m. that same day, three young females entered the Gorilla Vapes on the Black Horse Pike, and took the tip jar, according to the report.
Officer Tahsin Chowdhury located the vehicle heading west on the Black Horse Pike.
When the driver saw officers, he fled on the shoulder at a high rate of speed, and officers lost contact.
Hamilton Township police tried to stop the vehicle but also lost contact when it got onto the Atlantic City Expressway, Gray said.
The stolen vehicle was also involved in a theft at Target in Mays Landing and a theft of gas in Pleasantville on the same date, according to the report.
An officer spotted the stolen vehicle near the Egg Harbor Township Walmart the next day at 2:41 p.m.
Officer Nathan Lahr parked in the law enforcement parking space at Walmart. As he approached the stolen vehicle, the driver took off, crashing into the patrol car as he fled.
The stolen vehicle fled the area on Old Egg Harbor Road in the direction of Pleasantville.
The vehicle was speeding recklessly in the opposite lane of travel, Gray said.
The vehicle was also involved in a strong-armed robbery in Atlantic City sometime Tuesday before it was found in the city unoccupied at 5:12 p.m.
These are all incidents “of a stolen vehicle with marauding juveniles committing crimes with no regard for the police or public,” Capt. Fred Spano told BreakingAC.
The cases are being investigated by Detective Paul Janetta of the Egg Harbor Township Police Department Criminal Investigations Bureau.
Anyone with information concerning the incidents is requested to contact the Egg Harbor Township Criminal Investigations Bureau at 609-926-4051.
