ARRESTED: New Brunswick Mother Who Used 4-Year-Old Daughter To Steal Purse At Target

A 24-year-old New Brunswick woman has been arrested and charged for allegedly using her 4-year-old daughter to steal a purse from a shopping cart at South Brunswick Target last month.

After numerous tips were called into the South Brunswick Police Station, Nygeria Dixon was identified and has since been charged with one count of theft and two counts of child endangerment.

According to South Brunswick Police:

The victim had placed her wallet in the top of the shopping cart and was looking at greeting cards. Nygeria Dixon grabbed the cart and dragged it into the main aisle of the store. Dixon then had her 4 year old daughter go back to the cart and take a Louis Vuitton Clutch wallet.

The child then walks down the aisle and Dixon takes the wallet from her. Dixon and another adult female then left the Target. The victim’s credit cards were used minutes later at nearby Quaker Bridge Mall.

Chief Raymond Hayducka credited an outpouring of phone calls that led to the arrest.

“The numerous calls we received were a direct result of the public outrage over the crime. Detective Tighelaar was able to get the suspect’s images out to the media which generated more than a dozen phone calls, some even from other States. It is the partnership between the community and police that led to this arrest”.

The phone calls helped police not only track down Dixon, but the other woman seen in the surveillance as well as the vehicle they left in. The second woman has not been charged with any crime at this time and the vehicle they left in was totaled in a motor vehicle crash a week later.

Judge Spero Kalambakas set bail at $120,000 on the second degree charge of child endangerment for using a child in the commission of a crime.

Dixon was lodged at the Middlesex County Correction Center. The investigation is ongoing anyone with information is asked to call Detective Eric Tighelaar at (732) 329-4000 ext. 469.