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Crime & Safety

Gold Chains Grabbed from Palmer Park Mall Jeweler, Police Say

A New Jersey man has been charged with allegedly stealing three gold chains from a Palmer Park Mall jewelry store.

Palmer Township police have made an arrest in a February 2012 robbery of a Palmer Park Mall jewelry store, and they appear to have found their man—in a New Jersey prison with an extensive criminal record.

Brad Eric Maxwell, 39, was sentenced in November to three years in a New Jersey state prison for forging checks from a Warren County church and stealing from two county stores, according to a published report.

The Belvidere resident, who said at the November sentencing that he has a drug addiction, previously had been convicted in Warren County of plotting to kill an acquaintance. And in a previous Northampton County case, he pleaded guilty to stealing an 80-year-old woman’s purse in downtown Easton.

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On Wednesday, Maxwell was arraigned in Palmer Township on charges of stealing three gold chains valued at about $2,550 from Littman Jewelers in Palmer Park Mall. He pulled one of the chains from an employee’s hand, the charges say.

A Littman employee described Maxwell as having tattoos on his hands and wearing silver rectangular glasses.

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A criminal complaint does not say where Palmer police took Maxwell into custody or what accounted for the time gap between the jewelry store incident and Wednesday’s arraignment.

But it does say that police were ready to charge Maxwell when they filed the complaint on March 1, 2012—two days after the Littman incident.

The Littman incident, meanwhile, is not the first time Maxwell is accused of stealing a necklace. An Express-Times story about the November sentencing said his jail time also was for stealing a necklace from Kohl’s in Phillipsburg.

Also, in 1994, Maxwell was sentenced in Warren County Court to 10 years in state prison for planning to kill an acquaintance for his insurance settlement money, according to a story in The Morning Call. The charges were first-degree armed robbery and second-degree conspiracy to commit murder, the story says.

And in early 2006, he pleaded guilty to a charge that he stole the 80-year-old woman’s purse at Fourth and Washington streets in Easton in September 2005, according to another Morning Call story.

The complaint in the Littman incident, filed by Palmer Det. James Taylor, tells the following story:

  • The Littman employee told Taylor that a man later identified as Maxwell entered the store about 10 a.m. Feb. 28, 2012, a Tuesday, and asked about purchasing a gold chain. He identified himself as “Brad.”
  • The employee and a co-worker showed him several gold necklaces. The employee removed three from inside the glass display case. One was a 22-inch Figaro 10-karat gold chain valued at $958; another was a 20-inch Figaro 14-karat gold chain valued at $798, and the third was a 22-inch 10-karat gold rope chain, also valued at $798.
  • Two chains were on a counter pad, while the third was partly on the pad but with one end secured in the employee’s hand.
  • According to the employee, Maxwell said he was unable to decide which chain he wanted, then stated, “I will take all three.” He grabbed the chains from the counter pad, pulling one of them from the employee’s hand, then ran from the store.
  • The employee described Maxwell as about 5-feet-5 (the complaint lists him as 5-feet-6) with dirty blond hair, wearing a black jacket, jeans and the silver rectangular glasses. She also said he had a tattoo of his first name on his knuckles and a tattoo of a peace sign on his hand.
  • Taylor was contacted by a loss-prevention officer at Sears in Phillipsburg Mall who learned of the Littman incident from mall security. He said a man fitting Maxwell’s description had been at Sears and other mall stores the night of Feb. 27—a day before the Littman incident.
  • The officer said Maxwell filled out a credit application at the Kay Jewelers at the mall. Taylor used the name, date of birth and Pennsylvania driver’s license number on the application to track down Maxwell’s photo.
  • He then presented the Littman employee with an eight-person photo lineup. She picked out Maxwell’s photo as the man who robbed the store.

Maxwell was arraigned Wednesday morning by District Judge Jackie Taschner of Palmer Township on charges of robbery and theft by unlawful taking—both level-three felonies. She set bail at $75,000.

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