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Anthony Quick, who was once featured on "America's Most Wanted," was charged with scamming two other Palisades Park victims, as well -- one of them 87 and the other 86.
Quick, 51, was wanted in connection with similar scams in California, Georgia and Pennsylvania.
One of the victims, a 90-year-old Pasadena man, lost $8,500.
Quick, who made "America's Most Wanted" after authorities said he scammed an elderly Florida woman in 2006, has convictions for grand theft and fraud on his record.
He also sports some distinguishing marks, police said: tattoos of praying hands on his shoulder, palm trees and “Miami” on his calf and “Samantha” on his chest.
The 87-year-old Palisades Park target was loading groceries into her car on Friday when Quick came up, told her there was a problem in the "brain" of the vehicle and "proceeded to 'fix' it," Police Chief Ben Ramos told Daily Voice.
He said the job was worth $2,400 and demanded $800, but the woman had only $20, Ramos said.
Quick took that and fled, the chief said.
Moments after the woman called police, Sgt. Chris Beck spotted Quick and grabbed him.
Ramos said Quick did the same thing, twice, in Palisades Park in 2014.
In October of that year, he said, Quick "led an 86-year-old woman into believing her door lock was broken," then claimed to fix it and went with her to the bank to withdraw $3,000.
Two months later, he conned an 80-year-old man out of $2,460, claiming his tires needed repair and he had the part to fix it, the chief said.
"Again, he went with the victim to the bank," he said.
Police in Elizabeth said he used the exact same MO at a supermarket there, then accompanied the victim to the bank, where she withdrew $300 and promised to deliver the rest the following day.
She called police after he called her more than a half-dozen times demanding the balance, they said.
Officers set up Quick and an accomplice, arresting them when they showed up at the woman's bank.
Quick was being held on $20,000 bail in the Bergen County Jail, charged with four counts of theft, two of criminal mischief (tampering with vehicles) and hindering his arrest.
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