More than tree dozen people were arrested and thousands in stolen merchandise was recovered after a two-day operation broke up an organized retail theft ring in Cherry Hill, NJ, police said.
According to police, law enforcement officials with the Cherry Hill Police Department conducted the operation on May 21 and 22, working with more than twenty merchants and stores in an effort to curtail retail theft.
The operation, police officials said in a statement, resulted in 38 arrests -- including the busts of several individuals believed to be involved in an organized retail theft ring -- and the recovery of thousands of dollars worth of stolen merchandise.
In a statement, officials said Cherry Hill Police Chief Robert Kempf had been working on an effort to partner with "local merchants whose stores had been beleaguered by theft," since November of last year.
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"Instead of the police and the retailers pointing the finger at one another we met, talked things out and developed a plan to work together to be proactive in dealing with this issue," Kempf said in a statement.
Following meetings with merchants, police officials said they ran periodic enforcement details and had officers in plain clothes and on patrol in the vicinity of stores to apprehend suspected thieves.
Officials said the "basic idea is to outsmart and overwhelm the assailants before they have an opportunity to flee or fight."
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Cherry Hill Detective Robert Daniello, who was enlisted to head the program, said the cooperative effort was successful thanks to the help of retailors.
"Plain and simple it is teamwork. When you have everyone on the same page working together it makes our job that much easier," Daniello said in a statement.
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