Crime & Safety

UPDATE: Police Nab Alleged Convenience Store Robber

The second of two armed robberies the Gloucester Township man is charged with occurred at Garden State News, on the Black Horse Pike, Sunday afternoon.

UPDATE 6:52 p.m. 12/10: Dustin Cotellese, 24, of Gloucester Township, accused of robbing two convenience stores in Blackwood (see below) used a toy gun to commit the robberies, according to police.

He discarded the toy gun he used in the first robbery, which occurred on Dec. 2 at Heritage's, police said. The toy gun was recovered following the Dec. 9 robbery of Garden State News.

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A Gloucester Township man is behind bars Monday after police arrested him shortly after he allegedly robbed the South Black Horse Pike Garden State News store at gunpoint Sunday afternoon.

Dustin Cotellese, 24, of Lafayette Drive, is also charged with robbing a second Blackwood convenience store. That crime occurred earlier this month, police said.

Find out what's happening in Gloucester Townshipwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Police were dispatched to Garden State News at 4:35 p.m. Sunday on a report of a robbery at gunpoint. Members of the Gloucester Township Police Department Operations Response Unit located a man fitting the suspect description provided at the crime scene in the area and took him into custody, Capt. Jeff Weiserth said.

Cotellese has been charged with two counts of robbery in connection with the armed robbery of Garden State News on Sunday and the Dec. 2 armed robbery of the South Black Horse Pike Heritage's store.

He also faces two counts each of the following charges: possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose and unlawful possession of a weapon.

Cotellese was lodged in Camden County Jail on $400,000 bail.


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