Crime & Safety
Police Snag Alleged Pottstown Shoplifting Suspect after North Coventry Chase
A Pottstown teenager ran after allegedly attempting to shoplift from a Coventry Mall store.
Almost an hour after allegedly trying to steal from the Coventry Mall Boscov’s in North Coventry, a Pottstown teenager was apprehended by police after hiding in a storm drain near the Route 100 overpass at River Road on Thursday, according to The Mercury.
According to North Coventry police, Boscov’s loss prevention workers allegedly saw the teenager, a 19-year-old named Trenton Lee Clifford, as well as a 17-year-old male from Pottstown, bring items to a fitting room and try to leave with the items in their backpacks.
“The subjects were stopped outside of the store at which time the juvenile gave up and surrendered to Boscov’s security officers but Clifford fled on foot,” a North Coventry police press release noted.
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Police officers from North Coventry, Pottstown, and West Pottsgrove were searching around the 300 block of River Road around 3 p.m. and then went into the woods near Route 100, where they found Clifford.
“It’s because I panicked,” said Clifford, after police asked him why he ran. “Everybody panics.”
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Clifford did not tell police that he had stolen anything as he was speaking to them.
According to North Coventry Police Chief Robert Schurr, Clifford told police that he had been arrested earlier at a party.
Court records online indicate that the West Chester police department earlier arrested Clifford and he was charged with disorderly conduct of the hazardous or physically-offensive kind, as well as the purchase, consumption, possession or transportation of alcohol by a minor, stemming from an August 11 incident or incidents.
Clifford faces charges of disorderly conduct and retail theft in relation to Thursday’s incident, which are both misdemeanors.
Before graduating from Pottstown High School in 2012, Clifford was a well-known wrestler, and participated in the wrestling championships of May of that year.
The 17-year-old male from Pottstown who had surrendered received a summary charge of retail theft. He was released to family.
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