The long arm of the law on Wednesday caught up with 32-year-old Elzeife Williams, of Atlanta, Georgia, when the fugitive was nabbed in Montoursville near the busy Lowe’s-Walmart-Weis shopping district.

Williams, who has no connections to this area, is wanted in numerous states, including Alabama, Virginia, Mississippi and New Jersey on multiple theft-related charges, according to a criminal complaint filed by Patrolman William Hagemeyer.

New Jersey authorities alone in Morris County have been looking for him for two years, and told borough police they will extradite him, the officer said.

Hagemeyer said he was dispatched to Lowe’s about 10:50 a.m. to investigate a report of a man possibly involved in some suspicious activity in the parking lot. The same man was suspected of being involved earlier in some criminal activity at the Lowe’s in Whitehall Township, Lehigh County, Hagemeyer said he was told.

When the man, later identified as Williams, saw Hagemeyer approaching, he eluded him and took off in some woods, climbing over a fence at the back of the store.

Numerous police officers from several departments rushed to the area to assist Hagemeyer look for Williams. He was spotted running a couple of times.

However, each time he eluded officers by running and hiding again in the woods until the city police dog, Tacoma, found him and he was “flushed out and captured” about 12:10 p.m., Hagemeyer said.

“Among other things, Williams has felony warrants for shoplifting in Georgia, Mississippi and Virginia,” Hagemeyer said. Virginia authorities said they also would extradite him once he was captured, the officer said.

During his 3:15 p.m. arraignment before District Judge Gary Whiteman on a charge of fugitive from justice, Williams laughed when the judge asked him if he “ever run from the cops;” a question Whiteman asks all defendants during the bail-hearing portion of the proceeding.

Williams stated he wasn’t running, but walking fast.

Williams was taken to the Lycoming County Prison after Whiteman denied him bail. However, before he was committed, a corrections officer turned him and the officers away after seeing Williams limping into the jail. The corrections officer said Williams would have to be medically cleared first at UPMC Williamsport before he was accepted as an inmate.

The officers then took him to the hospital to be evaluated.