New Britain Township Police. Photo by James Short.
The incident occurred last week at the New Britain Township location
An Allentown man has been accused of shoplifting nearly $1,000 in merchandise from a CVS Pharmacy in New Britain Township.
Angel Jose Irizarry, 25, of the 800 block of South Front Street, was charged March 20 by township police with felony retail theft for the incident, according to charging documents.
On that day at 12:20 p.m., police were called to the 1456 Ferry Road CVS location for a report of a suspect acting strange, according to the complaint. On arrival, a manager pointed out Irizarry to police, who was in an aisle allegedly placing items he had in his possession onto a shelf in front of him, police said. These items were not the same as those for sale in the aisle, according to the complaint.
Irizarry allegedly became argumentative, asked what was going on, said he was being racially profiled and that he was just shopping. Police said a cell phone was in his hand, and police saw a text thread, with one text showing “Hurry up.”
The store manager retrieved a shopping basket that had five items in it totaling $44, which police allege was abandoned by Irizarry in an aisle. Then, in a cart next to Irizarry, were 59 items, totaling $926, which he attempted to leave the store with before police arrived, according to the complaint.
Irizarry told police he was shopping and was going to pay for the $926 in items, police said. Officers told Irizarry that if he concealed anything on his person, then it constituted theft or attempted theft, according to the complaint. Irizarry said he was willing to pay for everything, police said.
Police viewed surveillance footage, which allegedly showed the defendant walk toward the front door of CVS, look over his shoulder, and then turn from the door and walk down another aisle, police said.
All suspects and defendants are innocent until proven guilty. This story was compiled using public court records.
