GTPD: Social Media Tips Lead to Two Arrests

Gloucester Township police are crediting their social media efforts with two more arrests, including the apprehension of a man accused of stealing $27,000 worth of gold earrings from the Blackwood Clementon Road Kmart in late September.

Investigators on Sept. 25 posted surveillance video of the Sept. 23 Kmart jewelry heist to the police department's YouTube page and released surveillance images on its Twitter and Facebook pages. The release of the surveillance video and images prompted several tips to the township's anonymous crime tip line, allowing the Criminal Investigations Bureau to identify Marvin Pollitt, 42, as a suspect, Capt. Anthony Minosse said.

Police issued an arrest warrant for Pollitt on a third-degree shoplifting charge on Oct. 4. He was arrested by state police on the warrant Thursday in Camden, Minosse said.

Pollitt, whose last known address was in Autumn Ridge Apartments, Blackwood, was lodged in Camden County Jail on $20,000 bail.

Police are also crediting their use of social media with the arrest of a Glendora man in connection with the use of a stolen debit card at the Wawa store at Somerdale and Chews Landing roads on Oct. 30.

Michael Burke, 20, of Glendora Court Apartments, was arrested Thursday after tipsters identified him and two others in connection with the fraud, Minosse said. Police believe Burke, not the two others who accompanied him to the store, was responsible for the fraudulent use of the debit card.

The debit card was in a wallet reportedly stolen out of a car parked in the Village of Chews Landing development on the morning of Oct. 30.

Burke was charged with credit card theft and possession of a hypodermic needle. He was found to be possessing the needle when he was arrested, Minosse said.

Burke was lodged in Camden County Jail on $10,000 bail.