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Police were called by clerks at both the Rite Aid and Quick Chek up the street from one another on River Road yesterday afternoon.
Both men “attempted to purchase gift cards,” Bogota Detective Capt. James Sepp told CLIFFVIEW PILOT. “When the clerks asked them to pay, they swiped numerous credit cards in an attempt to get the payment through.”
Responding officers stopped their 2012 Lexus SUV on nearby West Main Street, Sepp said.
Both men “denied any knowledge of the incident and then claimed they could not speak the language,” he said.
Glen Rock police immediately sent over a Mandarin translator, Officer Murray Yang, to assist, the captain said.
“Once Yang showed up, the driver gave consent for the officers to search the car,” he said.
They found several American Express and Discover cards – all in the same names with the same expiration dates. Information swiped from the backs of real credit cards had been entered on the strips of the phonies, Sepp said.
The two men were also carrying several gift cards from BJ’s and one from Walmart, all for high dollar amounts, he said.
“American Express and Discover are currently working on getting all of the victims and dollar amounts of the victims and locations where the cards were used,” as are BJ’s and Walmart, the captain said.
Both men also were carrying BJ’s cards with their pictures and false information on them, along with other phony documents that included a bogus New York State driver’s license, he said.
Guihui Zhang, 37 (above, right), who used both a Quincy, Mass. and Brooklyn, NY address, was being held on $75,000 bail in the Bergen County Jail. He is charged with several offenses, including making the bogus cards, fraud and theft.
The other man — Guangnuan Gao, 51, of Flushing, Queens – was being held on $25,000 bail, charged with credit card theft and receiving stolen property. Gao’s Lexus also was impounded.
An investigation was continuing, Sepp said.
MUGSHOTS: Courtesy BOGOTA PD
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