Two charged with robbing employee

By Stephanie Prokop, Staff Writer
CHESTERFIELD —Two men were charged Friday with robbing an employee by ambushing a driver as he entered the Premier Pork site on Sykesville Road, police said.
    Walter Candies, 25, of Mount Holly, and Bruce Harper, 25, of Pemberton Borough, were taken into police custody shortly after the 12:20 p.m. robbery outside the pork processing plant, police said.
    Police said the employee had turned down a wooded street to enter the business and had encountered a large log across the roadway.
    When the driver got out of his van to attempt to move the roadblock, the two men jumped out of the wooded area and accosted him, police said.
    The two men pushed and punched the driver to the ground, grabbed a bag containing an undisclosed amount of money from the vehicle and ran into the woods, police said.
    The victim’s name is being withheld and police said he was in his personal vehicle coming back from a check-cashing facility when the robbery occurred.
    Chesterfield police said officers arrived three minutes after the call about the robbery was made to police at 12:23 p.m.
    A K-9 unit was requested from Evesham, along with a state police helicopter, said Police Chief Kyle Wilson.
    An eight-mile perimeter was established immediately with the help of Springfield Township and Mansfield police, he said.
    The two men were arrested without incident in the wooded area after a 20-minute search. Police said Mr. Candies was armed with a .45-caliber handgun.
    Mr. Candies was charged with armed robbery, unlawful possession of a handgun, and aggravated assault. He was lodged in Burlington County Jail in Mount Holly on Tuesday in lieu of $75,000 bail, police said.
    Mr. Harper was charged with robbery, and was lodged in the Burlington County Jail Friday in lieu of $50,000 bail, Chief Wilson said.
    “This was truly a cooperative effort between multiple law enforcement units,” said Chief Wilson, “Without them, there would have been too many holes for these two men to escape into.”