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Crime & Safety

Computer Swiped from Best Buy

Man arraigned before judge in Palmer Township for allegedly stealing $500 computer from Best Buy in Bethlehem Township.

A man with a long history of retail theft was charged Wednesday with stealing a $500 computer from the Bethlehem Township Best Buy and is suspected in two other recent thefts at the store, court records say.

Jeremy Sullivan, 41, whose history of theft cases in Northampton and Lehigh counties goes back to 1998, is accused of walking out of the Best Buy Monday morning with a Hewlett Packard All-in-One Desktop and driving away in a black 1999 Pontiac Grand Am.

Two township police officers investigating the case recognized Sullivan on surveillance video “due to prior incidents with him,” the records say.

Sullivan, of 7577 Airport Road, East Allen Township, was arraigned Wednesday by District Judge Jackie Taschner of Palmer Township on a charge of retail theft that rises to a level-three felony because of the prior convictions.

Meanwhile, online court records indicate that Sullivan was arraigned Tuesday night on two counts of retail theft for alleged incidents in Bethlehem Township that occurred on Jan 5 and Jan. 7.

The criminal complaint in Monday’s Best Buy incident quotes a store manager as saying Stevens is suspected in several other store thefts in the past several weeks. But online records only list the municipality – not a specific store or home – where an alleged crime occurred.

In the Tuesday night arraignments, the arresting officer was township Patrolman Anthony Stevens -- the same arresting officer in Wednesday’s arraignment.

Sullivan was arraigned Tuesday night by District Judge Joseph Barner of Lower Nazareth Township, who is on county-wide night duty this week. Bethlehem Township, however, is part of his regular jurisdiction.

The complaint in the Monday incident – as filed by Stevens – also says:

--Township Officer Andrew Keyock took information from Best Buy officials around 11:30am, shortly after the theft allegedly occurred. The officials told him about a man walking out with a computer and driving away in a black Grand Am, and provided a description of a 5-foot-10 man with a “large build” in his 40s. The complaint lists Sullivan’s weight as 230 pounds.

--Keyock later went to the Best Buy, at Route 33 and Freemansburg Avenue in the Southmont Shopping Center. A store employee said the man on surveillance video was the same man suspected in previous thefts.

--Shortly after 1pm Tuesday, Stevens and township Det. Scott Lipare arrived at Best Buy and talked to a manager, who gave an account of Monday’s incident based on surveillance video.

--The manager said the suspected thief, at that point thought to be Sullivan, entered the store at 11:18am wearing a Notre Dame hat and a jacket. Two minutes later, he picked up a computer, carried it around the store, placed it on the floor and left the store without it. Six minutes later, the man re-entered the store, took the computer and left without paying.

Sullivan was committed to Northampton County Prison after Monday night’s arraignment in lieu of $5,000 bail. At Wednesday’s arraignment, Taschner set bail at $10,000.

The online records show that Sullivan pleaded guilty in 2006 and 2010 to retail theft charges filed by Bethlehem Township police. In Lehigh County, he pleaded guilty in 2000 and 2010 to retail theft charges filed by Whitehall Township police, and pleaded guilty in 2004 to retail theft charges filed by state police at Fogelsville.

The records also show he faced numerous retail theft charges between 1998 and 2003 in such places as Bangor, Washington Township (Northampton County), Wind Gap and Upper Mount Bethel Township. He previously had a Bangor address, the records say.

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