A Philadelphia man is facing felony charges after he allegedly used a vehicle with a stolen license plate to drive to the Bed Bath and Beyond in Montgomery Township so he could steal some bedding and cookware.
Darius Abdullah, 54, of Philadelphia, has been charged with felony counts of receiving stolen property and retail theft in connection with the investigation by the Montgomery Township Police Department.
Police said they were alerted to the stolen vehicle around 1:30 p.m. after a stationary license plate reader at Bethlehem Pike and Hartman Road flagged the vehicle’s registration plate as stolen out of Philadelphia. Police said they confirmed the license plate was stolen and tracked the vehicle to the parking lot of Bed Bath and Beyond on Knapp Road.
At 1:45 p.m., police said they observed Abdullah pushing a shopping cart at a high rate of speed towards the vehicle with the stolen license plate, at which point Abdullah began loading items from the cart into the vehicle. According to the criminal complaint, police then made contact with Abdullah and detained him, at which point he stated, “Obviously I stole that,” and advised he knew he was going to jail.
Abdullah told police that he was the owner of the vehicle, however when questioned about the stolen license plate, Abdullah told police that his cousin had given him the vehicle, the report states.
Police said they returned to the stolen items to the store, where staff provided an itemized list of the stolen merchandise, which included:
With the other smaller items, the total value of the items stolen was $895.66. The asset protection manager for the store relayed to police that they wanted to press charges, and due to Abdullah having more than three prior convictions for retail theft, the charges were filed at the felony level, police said.
Abdullah was arraigned by District Judge John Kessler later that evening, who set bail at $5,000 unsecured. His next court appearance is a preliminary hearing on Nov. 9 at noon in front of District Judge Andrea Duffy.
All suspects and defendants are innocent until proven guilty. This story was compiled using court records and the affidavit of probable cause.
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