Crime & Safety

Cops Looking for Fourth of July Armed Robber

Police released a surveillance photo of a man who they say held a CVS manager at gunpoint and stole cash from the drugstore Thursday night.

The Mahwah Police are looking for a man who they say held the manager of CVS at gunpoint and stole an undisclosed amount of cash from the Franklin Turnpike drugstore on the Fourth of July.

Police released a surveillance photo of a man who they say went into the Mahwah CVS at about 9:45 p.m. Thursday and asked for help with a heating pad in one of the aisles.

While a manager was helping him, the man, “drew a black handgun from his waistband and held it to the manager’s head,” Chief Jim Batelli said in a release Friday morning. The man brought the manager to a cash register at the front of the store, and ordered another employee to fill a bag with cash from the register, Batelli said.

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

The man then left the store, and got into a light silver of white car and drove onto Fox Lane, heading toward Suffern, NY, Batelli said.

Police are looking for the man in the photo above, who they describe as a black man who is six feet tall, between 220 and 240 pounds, with hair tied in a ponytail. The man was wearing a white warm-up suit with black or blue stripes on it, police said.

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

Witnesses described the man’s getaway car as a Chevy Corsica or Lumina from the late 1990s or early 2000s, police said.

Police are also investigating the possible involvement of a woman who was in the store about a half hour before the armed robbery, and was “acting suspiciously,” Batelli said. While in the store, the woman bought a drink and asked for directions to the NYS Thruway, cops said.

“It is not known if she was involved in the robbery but Mahwah authorities would like to interview her,” Batelli said in the release.

Police are asking anyone who may have witnessed anything suspicious or who has any information about the robbery or the suspect call 201-529-1000.


Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

To request removal of your name from an arrest report, submit these required items to arrestreports@patch.com.