Thieves Snatch Cellphone, Headphones from Teens

Thieves stole a cellphone from a woman and headphones from a teenage boy in two incidents that police believe are related, said Maplewood Police Chief Robert Cimino.

In the first incident, three men in a light-colored car stopped a 16-year-old boy walking near the intersection of Summit Avenue and Plymouth Avenue last Wednesday around 6:15 p.m. and asked directions. When the boy approached the car, one of the men grabbed his headphones and the car drove away.

Less than fifteen minutes later, at 6:27 p.m., an 18-year-old woman was walking on Tuscan Road when a light-colored car pulled up and stopped near her, said Cimino. Two men got out of the car and took her cell phone out of her hand before getting back into the car and driving away, Cimino said.

No weapons were shown in either incident, and both the boy and the woman were uninjured, said Cimino. "Because of the description and the M.O., we are investigating these as being done by the same [people]," Cimino said.

Cimino said it is a common tactic of thieves to engage someone in conversation or ask questions to distract them in order to steal something.

The Detective Bureau is investigating both incidents.