On December 29, 2018, I, Officer Tim Van Nostrand, was on duty and assigned to uniform patrol in marked cruiser East 1. At approximately 8:19pm, I responded, along with Officer Shaun Clark (East 4) to Adidas for a shoplifter. Upon arrival, Assembly Row security stated the males had left Adidas, went into Banana Republic, and then one male exited and entered J. Crew. The reporting party, XXXX, works for Adidas and provided us with a description. Upon entering J Crew, I located a male fitting the description of the suspect. The male, identified as Stephen Culbertson, exited the store with me, and began to deny allegations of theft. After a brief conversation, Culbertson presented me with a black t-shirt valued at $9.98 that he admitted to stealing from Adidas.

Culbertson denied stealing anything else, however he was in possession of a brown paper bag with numerous Banana Republic items that still contained price tags on them. He was also observed by security entering and exiting the Banana Republic store. Culbertson was placed under arrest for shoplifting by concealing merchandise. In a subsequent search incident to arrest, I located a pair of clippers commonly used to remove theft detection devices. The Banana Republic merchandise was confirmed stolen by employees, and was valued at $99.98. XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX. Culbertson was transported by Officer Justin Brown (unit 200) to the station where he was booked by Lt. Rich Lavey. During booking, Officer Mackenzie Richardson located a stolen piece of jewelry from J. Crew valued at $34.50.

Culbertson was in the company of a XXXX, who has been charged with shoplifting in the past in Somerville. XXXX was in possession of items he admitted were stolen, but he purchased off a friend. XXXX was released without charges. Both XXXX and Culbertson were trespassed from Assembly Row.

Respectfully submitted,

Officer Tim Van Nostrand
#293
Somerville Police Dept.