Suspect Arrested In New Jersey Purse Snatchings
HACKENSACK, N.J. (WCBS 880) – Police have arrested 50-year-old Steven Trainer in connection with the serial purse-snatching incidents that have plagued New Jersey shopping mall parking lots over the past two weeks.
Clifton Det. Capt. Robert Rowan said they captured the "career criminal" after receiving a tip from an out-of-state law enforcement agency.
"We got a tip from an out-of-state law enforcement agency about this same individual who committed these types of crimes going back into the early '90s and had served time. Consequently, we started tracing him and we found him in Hackensack and we noticed that he was driving the same type of car," Rowan told WCBS 880's Sean Adams.
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LISTEN: WCBS 880's Sean Adams reports
The police had been growing concerned about the drive-by purse-snatcher who was prowling shopping plaza parking lots across North Jersey.
"Sometimes, of course, people were trying to hang on to their bags and that resulted in them getting knocked down or dragged," Rowan said.
Trainer faces multiple counts of robbery and resisting arrest.
"We are very happy to make this apprehension before anybody got seriously injured," Rowan said.
