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by Mike Donoghue
SOUTH BURLINGTON – A wanted New Jersey fugitive has learned it is never a good idea to try to chow down on food from the hot bar at a supermarket when police officers are nearby, according to the Chittenden County Sheriff’s Department.
One of the hungry grocery shoppers turned out to be Jamir Fitzgerald, 22, of Jersey City, N.J. and he is wanted on multiple felony arrest warrants related to drug trafficking in Hudson County, N.J., the sheriff’s department said.
Fitzgerald told the arresting detectives that he was relocating to Vermont to try to start a new life after getting out of prison in New York, a court affidavit stated.
Chittenden County Sheriff Dan Gamelin said members of his department’s Street Crimes Unit, after being part of an eviction case, were at a Shelburne Road grocery store in South Burlington last Friday afternoon when they spotted two suspicious acting customers.
The deputies, who were wearing shirts, vests and gear that had the word “Sheriff” in plain view, told the man and woman that they could not eat food directly from the hot bar – that the items had to be weighed and paid for, Gamelin said.
The woman offered some attitude, but the man was fine, and they moved on after filling two food packages, the sheriff’s department reported.
The deputies still monitored the couple and saw them continue to eat food out of their packages as they shopped and eventually stuffed one of the empty containers behind a food shelf display, Gamelin said.
The deputies confronted the couple again as they left the store without paying, Gamelin said. This time the man provided several identifications and dates of birth before eventually providing his true name and actual date of birth, the sheriff said.
A police computer check showed the man had four outstanding felony warrants for heroin and cocaine charges, including trafficking within 500 feet of public property, deputies said. The law is designed to cover public housing, parks, and schools, but in this case the charges stem from a case inside a local courthouse, records show.
A check with the Hudson County Sheriff’s office in New Jersey revealed authorities said they would extradite Fitzgerald back home, Gamelin said.
Records indicate Fitzgerald had recently been released from Rikers Island, a city-operated jail in the Bronx and he was identified as a member of a gang, the department said. He has a long criminal record in New Jersey and New York, including for drug cases, harassment, possession of a weapon for unlawful purposes, terrorist threats and shoplifting, court records show.
Sheriff’s deputies lodged Fitzgerald at the Northwest State Correctional Facility in St. Albans for lack of $25,000 on the fugitive charge. He appeared in Vermont Superior Court in Burlington on Monday and was ordered held without bail.
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Categories: Crime
“Relocating to Vermont to try to start a new life”…
Street talk translation: going somewhere where hopefully no one knows about my criminal record or gang affiliation. and intending to pick up where I left off before last getting caught.
Nice work, Sheriff and Deputies for your police intuition!…sure hope our wonderful Chittenden County State’s Attorney doesnt bring charges against you for some bias bullbleep. You likely prevented some serious crime.
Vermont had become a haven for such people.
How was he to know that it was illegal to steal food from the food court in Vermont? Looked like it was all there for the taking . Kinda like a Costco sample.
He did us all a public service. Now I will be sure to be more careful when I graze!
A rough start for a person seeking anew start in Vermont.
Really? How would you feel if it was your store?
Touché
Like most libs you’re a crook too. I love the idea of non hand-washers diving into (grazing) food made for everyone. Your post is beyond stupid
i think he was being facetious
Maybe they had heard about the “MealTrain” concept of a certain gov’t official and thought that this might be part of it.
When too many people do this, stores discontinue having a food bar and honest folks who work nearby who like having it there have now lost a lunch option. Many older folks with mobility issues have had their nearby pharmacies close down due to shoplifters because our politicians have convinced junkies and vagrants that it is a human right to help yourself to stuff from the big, greedy corporation. It’s a quality of life issue that doesn’t just hurt the big, greedy corporation. A majority of our fellow Vermonters have voted consistently for this situation.
There must be many people like this guy, come to VT and get state support: free food assistance (steal and eat food while in a store and continue eating when leaving,
Mc D’s will go broke), free lodging / housing, free clothing, free vehicles, VT drivers License (no resident proof), immediate release from court, free gas card, all provided for them by feel good legislators who get paid salaries (free money) confiscated from tax payers who get the bills. CA duplicates VT lead. An VDC article stated that Burlington had about 150 incidences investigated over one weekend with some 26 officers. The criminal element knows where to be, and the word is out.
Just more big-city trash in Vermont, looking for a new start…. sure. I guess the new start, was eating food you had no intention of paying for, like I said, trash from the city and an X-con to boot……. just what we need !!
I guess he hadn’t made it to Burlington, as he’d fit right in that cesspool.
Downtown Burlington is the real magnet for these folks. They just spread out as needed to new stores down the road that they havn’t yet been trespassed from.
I have seen the second entryway at Hannafords Shelburne Road closed at 5pm before, with a sheriff inside. A majority of voters in Vermont are apparently just fine with this behavior.
He was a good boy, a very good boy.
Ya can’t fix stupid.
just another day at the vermont zoo////