Man sentenced for Hatfield purse snatching
Justin Pope got to three to 23 months in connection with a 2016 incident at the ShopRite on Forty Foot Road.
NORRISTOWN >> A Newtown Square, Delaware County, man faces some jail time, community service and probation for conspiring with a Skippack woman to steal the purse of a shopper at a Hatfield Township supermarket.
Justin Pope, 24, of the 200 block of Liberty Court, was sentenced Tuesday in Montgomery County Court to three to 23 months in the county jail after he pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of conspiracy to commit theft by unlawful taking in connection with the November 2016 incident at the ShopRite store along Forty Foot Road. Judge Joseph P. Walsh, who accepted a plea agreement in the matter, also ordered Pope to complete two years’ probation following parole, meaning Pope will be under court supervision for a total of about four years.
The judge said Pope will receive credit for the time he’s been in jail since Nov. 17.
Pope also must complete 24 hours of community service and share with his alleged co-conspirator in the payment of $1,268 in restitution.
That alleged co-conspirator, Tiffany Groves, 23, of the 2000 block of Fort Bevon Road, previously pleaded guilty to charges of theft by unlawful taking and conspiracy to commit theft and received a time served to 23-month sentence and 24 hours of community service, according to court records.
An investigation of the pair began about 9:25 a.m. Nov. 10 when Hatfield Township police responded to the ShopRite for a reported purse theft. The victim told investigators that someone had taken her black purse, which contained cash, car keys and other items, all valued at more than $800, from her shopping cart, according to the criminal complaint filed by Hatfield Township Detective Thomas Starner.
Police reviewed store surveillance footage which depicted a male and a female approach the victim’s cart at which time the female snatched the victim’s purse, the arrest affidavit says.
“The surveillance video shows the female and male running out of the store into the parking lot and entering into a light blue-colored Hyundai Tirburon bearing a Pennsylvania registration plate,” Starner wrote in the arrest affidavit, adding the video provided good descriptions of the culprits who were subsequently identified as Pope and Groves.
Investigators discovered that the same pair had gone into the ShopRite on Nov. 9 and the female took a wallet from an elderly woman’s purse, looked through it, then returned it to the woman’s purse and walked out of the store, the arrest affidavit indicates.
The investigation eventually led police to Pope and Groves. During questioning by police, Pope and Groves admitted to stealing the purse from the ShopRite on Nov. 10, according to the arrest affidavit.
Investigators were able to determine the identity of the elderly woman involved in the Nov. 9 incident, and she told police that nothing was missing from her purse and that the wallet Groves allegedly removed and then put back only contained coupons, police said.