For two local men who were believed to be shoplifting at a North Arlington dollar store, that was probably the most minor part of their day since both wound up having drugs on them and both had active arrest warrants, North Arlington Police Department Chief Michael Horton said.
According to Horton:
On Nov. 13, 2024 the North Arlington PD responded to the Dollar General market on River Road on a report of two individuals possibly shoplifting. The caller noted one of the individuals was possibly the same person involved in a shoplifting incident at the same location the day before.
Upon arrival, officers interviewed both individuals — Ricky Matos, 25, of Kearny and Gary Hinton, 42, of Belleville, who were found to have active warrants for their arrests.
After placing both under arrest, a search revealed Matos was in possession of prescription drugs without a prescription, drug paraphernalia, several stolen credit cards and other stolen personal items while Hinton was in possession of prescription drugs without a prescription and drug paraphernalia.
Further investigation identified Matos as being the person suspected of shoplifting the day before.
Matos and Hinton were charged with multiple offenses and were remanded to the Bergen County Jail, Hackensack.
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Kevin A. Canessa Jr. is the editor of and broadcaster at The Observer, an organization he has served since 2006. He is responsible for the editorial content of the newspaper and website, the production of the e-Newspaper, writing several stories per week (including the weekly editorial), conducting live broadcasts on social media channels such as YouTube, Facebook, and X, including a weekly recap of the news — and much more behind the scenes. Between 2006 and 2008, he introduced the newspaper to its first-ever blog — which included podcasts, audio and video. Originally from Jersey City, Kevin lived in Kearny until 2004, lived in Port St. Lucie. Florida, for four years until February 2016 and in March of that year, he moved back to Kearny to return to The Observer full time. Click Here to send Kevin an email.