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The Harding Road resident was on his own phone with police after receiving a FedEx package with someone else’s name on it when a man came to door trying to collect it, Police Chief Dean Ackermann said.
The resident was wise to the growing scam, however: He'd read about it.
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SEE: In what’s become a common scam, a thief had an illegally purchased iPhone shipped to the home of a Glen Rock woman who may end up being a victim.
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After the resident pretended that he didn’t get a package, the thief “insisted that it was just delivered by FedEx because he had received [an alert] confirming the delivery,” Ackermann said. “The resident insisted no delivery had been made and the man departed.”
Home surveillance video recorded the incident – as well as the stranger’s license plate number and direction of travel, the chief said.
Moments later, Officer John Tarantino spotted the car at a local gas station.
Assisted by Sgt. Greg Carter, the officer found eights phones “that been picked up at various homes throughout the region,” Ackermann said.
They arrested the driver, 22-year-old Cesar L. Almanzar-Castillo of the Bronx, on charges of receiving stolen property. They also issued him a summons for driving with a suspended driver’s license.
Almanzar-Castillo was released, under New Jersey’s 2017 bail reform law, pending an Aug. 24 hearing in Central Judicial Processing in Hackensack.
An investigation was continuing.
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