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on fire
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the swamp man...
A true outdoors man...
http://www.nj.com/search/index.ssf?/...ester?top_news
Quote:
DEPTFORD TWP. -- The cops call him Swampy.
That's short for Swamp Man and he's sort of a legend here, a man police believe may have been living somewhere in the marshland around Big Timber Creek for 10 or 15 years.
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Mostly, they've spotted him at night. They figure he comes out at night to scavenge for food from restaurant dumpsters. One officer said he must be the ultimate survivalist to have made it through some of our recent winters in the woods.
The man they call Swampy was arrested Friday morning. Allegedly, he was throwing rocks and chasing a dog-walker with a 2-by-4 near Pet Smart in the Deptford Crossings shopping center off Clements Bridge Road.
Over the years, there have been brief contacts with the man whose name no one seems to know.
Eight years ago, police were investigating reports of moans or screams that sounded like someone in trouble.
"All of a sudden, we came upon this compound," said Capt. Daniel Murphy.
"Long before that, we knew about him existing back there. This time, we found his compound, but we couldn't find him," said Murphy.
"Then all of a sudden, there he was. He doesn't talk coherently, he mutters. He scared the heck out of us," Murphy recalled.
"He ran down into the water, and it was like Jesus Christ -- he seemed to be walking across the swamp," said Murphy.
"It was unbelievable," added Lt. Richard Harbison.
But not quite a miracle.
"It turned out, he had set up pylons, stuff like that in the water and only he knew where they were and, at low tide, he could get in and out of the swamp," Murphy said. "He had rafts and everything at one time. We could never catch up to him," Murphy added.
"One time, we finally netted him and got him over to (psychiatric evaluation) and he managed to get back out. Every time he got back out ... he ended up in that swamp," said Murphy.
"The guy wears 20 different layers of clothing. He sleeps during the day, he's nocturnal, he goes out at night," Murphy said.
"Maybe, as he gets older over the last 15 years, it's getting harder for him. ... He's been moving closer and closer to the areas where he eats," said Murphy.
"Now he's becoming a problem where he's right in an area where he's in contact with the public on almost a regular basis, as opposed to having contact with them maybe once every eight months," he said.
On Friday morning, Swampy allegedly started throwing rocks at a man who was walking a dog outside Pet Smart in Deptford Crossings. Then he started chasing the dog-walker with a piece of 2-by-4, according to police.
The victim ran inside Pet Smart and called police. Officers responding to the wooded area in front of Pet Smart and behind Chili's found the unidentified man lying atop a mound of trash where they believe he now lives. Police said he resisted arrest and put his hands down into one of the mounds of trash, prompting officers to draw their weapons.
Sgt. Dave Raso, K-9 Ptl. John Senick and his dog Bear, and Patrolmen John Petroski, Eric Kerby, Timothy Parks and William Bittner Jr. were involved in picking up the man Friday morning.
The area is a pile of trash bags at the bottom of a shallow gully in the woods, approximately 50 feet from the access roads in and out of Deptford Crossings and actually visible from the road. Police believe the man simply pulls trash over himself as protection from the elements.
He had kitchen knives and even a long, metal bolt tied with laces and dangling from his clothing, said police.
"He has a big beard and he's not well-groomed," Murphy said.
The rags he was wearing had to be cut off him, said police. They punched his fingerprints into the system, but still don't know who he is.
He was charged with aggravated assault, resisting arrest and disorderly conduct, then turned over to a crisis intervention unit at Underwood-Memorial Hospital, police said.
"He's a John Doe right now," said Murphy.
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