Woman escapes after robber tries to tie her up inside NJ smoke shop, police say

NBC10 obtained the frantic 911 call an employee made after police say a robber tried to tie her up inside a smoke shop in Toms River, New Jersey.

The incident occurred on Monday, Jan. 19, around 6 a.m. at the Noble Smoke Shop on 203 Route 37 East. An unidentified man entered the store and asked an employee inside to open a locked case of items, according to investigators. Police said the man then tried to restrain the employee with plastic zip ties.

“He just had a zip tie and he asked me to put my hands behind my back,” the woman said in the 911 call. “But I, like, pushed him. And I was like, ‘No. No. Stop.’”

Police said the woman managed to escape the robber unharmed.  

“And then I started running to the other side of the store. He just started grabbing a bunch of our stuff and I went back and I started to try to push him and he just didn’t stop,” the woman said. “So then I ran back and I went to try to grab the phone to call 911 again. And he ran out the front door.”

The robber stole thousands of dollars’ worth of Kratom cartridges from the store before fleeing the scene, police said. He was last seen in the area of the Jamestowne Village Apartments, according to investigators.

The robber is described as a man with a medium build wearing a black North Face jacket with a fur hood, light-colored cargo pants and black sneakers. Neither police nor the employee in the 911 call mentioned whether or not the man was armed. Investigators also said they recovered the zip ties inside the store.

If you have any information on the robbery, call Detective Putkowski at 732-349-0150, extension 1349, or email him at jputkowski@trpolice.org.