A Hamilton Township K-9 helped crack a shoplifting case, police said.
Officers were called to the Festival Mall’s Acme at about 4:10 p.m. Sunday, after a man allegedly stole from the store.
The suspect — later identified as Kenneth Calverley, 28, of Pleasantville — fled into the woods, police were told.
Officers R. Brady and William Howze found Calverley walking down Route 40, according to the report. He at first gave officers a fake name, and was taken into custody without incident.
He did not have the stolen items, police said.
That’s when K-9 Officer Cory Silvio arrived with her partner, Argos.
Argos began tracking Calverley’s trail into the woods and found the stolen items along with the suspect’s two jackets, including one that had a syringe and glass pipe inside.
Calverley was charged with shoplifting, obstruction of justice and possession of drug paraphernalia.
He was taken to the Atlantic County Justice Facility, where he is awaiting transport to jail in Cape May County, where he has an unrelated outstanding warrant.
Calverley was released from Bayside State Prison in June, after serving three months on a burglary charge out of Cape May County, state Department of Corrections records show.
That was after serving more than 2½ years for burglary and resisting charges from 2013 and 2014. He was released from that sentence in January 2017, only to go back in that March.
