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Do People Read Crime Stories? Ask Glen Rock Man Who Helped Police Nab Accused Cellphone Thief

A Glen Rock resident who’d read last month about thieves sending fraudulently bought cellphones to third-party addresses led police to a Bronx man who they said was carrying eight phones worth $8,000.

Glen Rock police.

Glen Rock police.

Photo Credit: CLIFFVIEW PILOT photo

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.

https://paramus.dailyvoice.com/police-fire/police-urge-caution-after-growing-cellphone-delivery-scam-fools-glen-rock-resident/740367/

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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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