After a Year, Police Collar 'High-End' Burglars
Darius Gittens and Geoffrey Petit of Medford set their sights high, allegedly scoring $2 million in proceeds from wealthy Camden and Burlington County communities.
Who says beggars can't be choosers?
Certainly not the cops who arrested a team of alleged "high-end" thieves who prowled some of the ritzier neighborhoods in South Jersey.
Two Medford men are now behind bars, accused of thefts in Haddonfield, Evesham, Medford, Moorestown, Mount Laurel and Voorhees.
See a pattern there?
These are some of the highest per capita income communities in South Jersey, and apparently a playground for a pair of overachieving burglars who reportedly made off with more than $2 million in cash, jewelry, antiques, electronics, coins and other items.
Darius Gittens, 53, and Geoffrey Petit, 47, both of Medford, were charged with multiple crimes, including: burglary, theft, criminal mischief, interception of emergency communication for an unlawful purpose and possession of a radio to intercept emergency communications while committing a crime.
Petit also was charged with impersonating a public servant, receiving stolen property, possession of a stun gun and one count of certain persons not to have weapons.
Gittens also was charged with possession of a stun gun, possession of handcuffs, unlawful possession of a handgun and two counts of certain persons not to have weapons.
Both are being held in the Camden County Correctional Facility on $150,000 full-cash bail.
Among the more daring details of the investigation: March 23, Gittens allegedly stole a 350-pound safe and a registered gun from a Haddonfield home in the unit block of Lane of Acres, a plush neighborhood next to the luxe Tavistock Country Club, which is actually its own incorporated municipality.
The pair were arrested Sept. 5, Gittens at his home and Petit at a car stop near his home. It was the culmination of a nearly yearlong investigation involving police in every town hit by the burglaries now charged to the pair.
"It's a good feeling to have it done," said Det. Sgt. Mark Knoedler of the Haddonfield Police. "We caught him and he'll be off the street for a while. It was good work by the departments."