A 25-year-old Willingboro man was arrested and charged with stealing a cell phone, which was valued at around $500, at the Genuardis on West Bay Avenue on Sunday.

Vane Jackson was arrested and charged around 7 p.m., about four hours after the phone was reported missing.

Patrolman Alex Hoffman responded to the store at 3:00 p.m. after a 48-year-old Barnegat resident reported that her cell phone was stolen from a Genuardis grocery basket.

The victim had accidentally left the cell phone in the hand-held basket after checking out, but returned minutes later when she realized what she had done. She found the basket, but the cell phone had been removed.

Store employees described to the victim a customer who had just used the same self checkout register. The victim observed someone meeting that description, who was later identified as Jackson, in the parking lot and approached him asking if he had taken a phone. Jackson denied taking the phone and drove away.

Patrolman Hoffman reviewed video surveillance footage from the Genuardis which showed a male subject removing the cell phone from the basket and placing it in his pocket before exiting the store.

Later that evening, Patrolman Hoffman was on Lexington Boulevard to backup officers on an unrelated call when he observed Jackson. A subsequent discussion led to Jackson being charged with theft of the cell phone. The phone was then recovered from a Lexington Boulevard address, and was returned to the woman.

Also, on Tuesday at 7:22 p.m., members of the Barnegat Police Narcotics Unit arrested  and charged Kevin McCutcheon, 22, of Lexington Boulevard, on $6,500 on outstanding warrants issued by Toms River, Lakewood, and the Ocean County Sheriff's Department. 

Officers observed McCutcheon walking in the area of Lexington Boulevard and knew him to have outstanding warrants. When officers approached McCutcheon, he provided officers with a false name and date of birth. Once he was told he was under arrest, he actively resisted arrest, police said

McCutcheon was charged with hindering apprehension and resisting arrest before being turned over to members of the Ocean County Sheriff's Department who transported McCutcheon to the Ocean County Jail.