Police Blotter: Traffic Stop Leads to DUI Charges

Driving Under the Influence

Nelson Melgar-Donis, 30, of Puritan Avenue, Lawrence Township, was arrested about 1:20 a.m. Friday, March 22, and charged with driving under the influence, DUI in a school zone, reckless driving, and failure to maintain a lane after the vehicle he was operating was stopped on Princeton Avenue by Officer Andres Mejia, according to Lawrence Township police spokesman Lt. Mark Ubry.

He said Mejia initiated the traffic stop after observing Melgar-Donis’s vehicle abruptly slow while negotiating the Brunswick Circle and then cross over the road’s double-yellow line while traveling on Brunswick Circle Extension. Melgar-Donis was taken into custody after he performed poorly on field sobriety tests, he said.

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Driving Under the Influence

Dawn Boyd, 42, of Nottingham Way, Hamilton, was arrested about 10 p.m. on Friday, March 22, and charged with driving under the influence and reckless driving after police found her – in an intoxicated condition – in the driver’s seat of a vehicle parked outside the McDonald’s restaurant off Brunswick Circle Extension, Ubry said.

Boyd was taken into custody after she failed field sobriety tests, he said, explaining that police had responded there in response to a disturbance created inside the restaurant by Boyd’s husband, who also appeared intoxicated. The husband was not arrested, he said.  

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Drug Offense

Alphanso Thompson, 24, of Trenton, was arrested about 11:15 p.m. on Friday, March 22, and charged with possession of marijuana under 50 grams after police, responding to a complaint about excessive noise coming from a room at the Comfort Inn on Route 1, found him with a quantity of the narcotic, Ubry said.

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Burglary

Detective Robert Potter and Officer Michael Whitmore are investigating a burglary that occurred at one of the lockers at the Extra Space Storage facility in the 2800 block of Route 1 (Brunswick Pike).

Ubry said police were contacted on Friday, March 22, by a township resident who reported that sometime after Jan. 10 at least $1,800 worth of property – including luggage, tools and a television – were stolen from his storage locker. No evidence of forced entry was found to the locker or its padlock, he said.

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Theft

A Blackberry cell phone belonging to an employee at the Street Talk kiosk at Quaker Bridge Mall was stolen between 5:22 p.m. and 5:35 p.m. on Friday, March 22, after the employee set the phone down while assisting a customer, Ubry said, adding that the phone was valued at $500. Suspected in the crime is a white male described only as being between 25 and 35 years old, he said.

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Theft

An employee of the Teavana store at Quaker Bridge Mall called police at 7:15 p.m. on Friday, March 22, to report that her Droid cell phone – worth $200 – was stolen after she put the phone down on the store counter, Ubry said.

He said the employee called her phone and heard it ring in the pocket of a customer, described as a black female, in her 40s, with shoulder-length hair, wearing a gray hooded sweatshirt. Not waiting to confront the thief, however, the employee waited to call police until after the woman had left the store, he said.  

Police ask anyone with information about any of the above crimes to call them at (609) 896-1111.