Cops: Carjacking dog-nappers foiled

Monday, May 09, 2011
By TERRENCE T. McDONALD
JOURNAL STAFF WRITER

A man with a gun tried to carjack a vehicle near Newport Centre Mall Saturday afternoon with the aid of an accomplice, according to police reports.

Police believe both men working together may also moments earlier have tried to steal a dog from a pet store inside the mall.

A Jersey City woman was driving a 1999 blue Chevy along Erie Street with her five-year-old grandson when at about 4:15 p.m. she turned east on Sixth Street and a man jumped in front of the car, police said.

According to police, the man was being chased by another man brandishing a handgun. The first man tried to open the front passenger-side door, screaming for help as his pursuer yelled "Stop or I'll shoot," police said.

The woman sped away and called police.

Authorities believe the carjacking suspects may be linked to a bizarre robbery inside the Newport Centre Mall that occurred about a half hour earlier.

Elizabeth Rubet, 22, a clerk at The Pet Company, told The Jersey Journal yesterday that a heavyset man in his late 30s approached her shortly before 4 p.m. Saturday and inquired about a 3-month-old Chiweenie, a Chihuahua and Dachshund mix.

Believing the man to be a legitimate customer, Rubet retrieved the dog from behind its glass enclosure and gave it to him, she said.

Meanwhile, a second man, described as thin with tattoos on his arms and missing his bottom teeth, distracted Rubet by asking questions about another animal, she said.

While she was distracted, the first man shoved the Chiweenie into a black bookbag and calmly walked out of the store toward JC Penney, according to a police report.

But Rubet chased the dognapper into the department store.

"I didn't want a puppy being stolen," she said.

When she caught up to the suspect, she said she acted on instinct and grabbed the bookbag containing the pooch and returned it to the store. Rubet said the suspect didn't fight when she pulled the bag from his arm.

"I just felt like it was the right thing to do," she said. "I was the one who gave him the puppy, so it would have been my fault."

Police are still hunting for the suspects, and for clues that the two crimes are linked, police spokesman Stan H. Eason said yesterday.