Police Dog Catches Alleged Shoplifter In Manalapan

MANALAPAN, NJ — Manalapan Police K9 Grim chased down and helped apprehend an alleged shoplifter at the Manalapan Best Buy on Rt. 9 last Wednesday, police report. That's Grim pictured above in training.

The incident happened at 4:30 p.m. last Wednesday, Jan. 2, Manalapan police said: Best Buy employees called 911 to report a shoplifting in progress.

When police got there, they noticed a middle-aged man allegedly leaving the store with unpaid merchandise. They shouted at him to stop, but he did not listen to the officer's commands, said Capt. Thomas Barstow, the Manalapan police public information officer. Instead he fled — and that's when German Shepherd Grim was released.

"It wasn't overly dramatic," said Barstow. "The subject did not comply with the officer’s commands and fled. The dog was released, and Grim quickly took control over him."

The man, later identified as Sergio Olaizola, 50, of Elizabeth, received minor abrasions in the incident. He was taken to CentraState Medical Center to be treated, and then released and taken to Manalapan police headquarters. Police said they found him with $379.96 in stolen merchandise; they did not disclose what the item was.

He was charged with shoplifting, resisting arrest, possession of anti-theft countermeasure tools and possession of drug paraphernalia.

K9 Grim is Manalapan's only police dog currently in service; he graduated from the Ewing Township Canine Academy and joined the department in 2015. He works with his handler, Manalapan Patrolman Adam Sosnowski, a Marine Corp veteran who served two combat tours in Iraq.

Grim has made some remarkable saves: He was on the job for less than a week in 2015 when he scent-tracked a 15-year-old boy who had gotten into an argument with his mother and run away. Grim tracked him through a heavily wooded area the teen ran through and eventually found him in a parking lot along Rt. 9 north. (Read more about that story here.)

He later scent-tracked a missing suicidal teen girl who ran away from her home on Meadow Green Circle.

Related:

Police Dog K9 Joins Manalapan PD

K-9 Grim Finds Manalapan Runaway Teen

Photos of Grim in training provided to Patch by the Manalapan Police Department.