BLOOMFIELD, NJ -- A
Belleville woman and a Kearny man have been charged with theft of property for
stealing a package from a Newark Avenue porch on Saturday, December 29. The
Bloomfield Police Department cites cooperation from neighbors and the
Belleville Police Department with quickly solving the case.
Home surveillance footage at the
time of the theft shows a woman get out of a car driven by an accomplice before
taking the package. Bloomfield Police Department personnel believed the woman
to be 29-year-old Belleville resident Brittany Kiessler and send a tracking
alert to surrounding towns. The suspect had been arrested in Belleville for an
open warrant. With this information, she was arrested on Wednesday, January 2.
In police custody, she identified her accomplice as 35-year-old Kearny Matthew
Hemphill, a resident of Kearny. Both have been issued court summonses.
“I want to thank our dedicated
detectives for working so quickly and using the resources available to us to
identify the suspects. I would also like to thank the Belleville Police
Department, which had previously interrogated Ms. Kiessler about an unrelated
matter, for working with us to make sure we had the right person. When
neighboring Police Departments work together we are able to solve more cases,
more quickly, bringing closure to victims and keeping our neighborhoods safe,” said
Director of Public Safety Samuel DeMaio.
Package thefts were down this
holiday season, in part because of conscious efforts by the Bloomfield Police
leadership to increase police presence during the day time. The Department also
utilized undercover police vehicles to follow delivery trucks and watch for
suspicious behavior from residents who observed the packages delivered to
unattended homes.
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