Police: Couple Has Stolen Ninja Blenders From Multiple NJ Walmart Stores
AUGUSTA, N.J. (CBSNewYork) -- New Jersey State Police were on the hunt Friday for a couple who allegedly swiped blenders from more than a dozen stores.
As CBS2's Christine Sloan reported, investigators have the suspects' identities thanks to social media, after posting their pictures online.
The couple was caught on video walking out of a Walmart in Hampton Township, New Jersey. They are seen with a boxed Ninja blender sit ting under a plastic bag in their shopping cart.
State police claimed the couple did not pay for the blender, and said they pulled the same stunt in more than a dozen Walmarts in the area.
"Both parties would go into the store. She would go to the blender section, select a blender, put it in the shopping cart," said New Jersey State Police Detective Darran Crane. "He would select a few items check out at the electronics counter, meet her in the store, put the bags on top of the blender – on top of the box -- and then walk right out front of the store with the blender in the shopping cart."
Popular Ninja blenders have sharp blades, and run just over $100 at retail.
Dubbed as the "couple that blends together stays together," New Jersey State Police posted surveillance pictures of them on the department Facebook page.
The social media-loving public was not about to let the alleged Ninja blender thieves get away.
"The reaction was overwhelming," said New Jersey State Police Detective Michael Braccioforte. "Within 20 minutes, we received numerous phone calls identifying the individuals along with the vehicle."
State police at Troop B Barracks in Augusta were not sharing the suspects' names, but said they know the suspects' identities and are hot on their trail.
The male suspect is in his 30s, the woman with him 22, state police said. It seems their whole love story blended well on Facebook.
"It looks like, from their Facebook pages, that they were a couple," Crane said. "That's how we identified them."
State police credited a budding loss prevention specialist at Walmart with cracking the case of the couple with the alleged knack for swiping blenders.
Police said they still do not know what the couple was doing with the blenders in Augusta.
