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Kareem A. Gibbs
Officers were staking out the Gibbs’ home on Kotte Place when he came out, spotted them and ran, Detective Capt. Thomas Salcedo told CLIFFVIEW PILOT. Gibbs tried ducking through a nearby car wash and gas station but was quickly caught, the captain said.
He already was wanted on two outstanding warrants, one from Hackensack and the other from the Bergen County Sheriff’s Department, Salcedo said. Police obtained a search warrant and turned up $200-$300, most of it shredded, at Gibb’s home, Salcedo told CLIFFVIEW PILOT.
Also found in the house were a laptop and printer cartridge believed used in making the phony money, he said. “He obviously knew we were looking for him,” the captain said.
There was also a surprising discovery – illegal hollow-nosed bullets, Salcedo told CLIFFVIEW PILOT.
Yesterday morning, police got a call from a car wash employee, the captain said: Someone found a bag with more than $1,200 worth of shredded bills inside stashed in a corner.
“He’d obviously hid it there,” Salcedo said.
“It looks real,” the captain told CLIFFVIEW PILOT. “But when you feel it, it’s the texture of copy paper…. We’re literally piecing the money back together to see how much it adds up to. We’re thinking it’s about 15 hundred dollars.”
Also found were gift cards believed bought with the phony money, he said.
Hackensack police knew Gibbs well. He served three weeks in the Bergen County Jail and was put on probation after being convicted of resisting arrest after he tried to run from their officers in February, records show.
Until Tuesday, it was the last time Gibbs was arrested. But criminal records from Bergen County show several priors, CLIFFVIEW PILOT has found.
Fairview police got a call from the Casa Latina Restaurant on Fairview Avenue of a man who tried to pay for his check with a phony $20 bill the afternoon of Aug. 11 last year. When officers arrived, records show, the 5-foot-4, 140-pound Gibbs took off. He tried to hop a nearby bus on Fairview Avenue, but the officers grabbed him.
Gibbs’s first adult arrest was in March of last year, two months after he turned 18, following a traffic stop by Bergen County Police in Fair Lawn.
Officer Anthony Gagliostro had been following the car when the driver began repeatedly hitting the brake, nearly causing an accident. Gagliostro said he smelled marijuana on the breath of Gibbs, the passenger, who apparently was chewing gum that he swallowed.
During a search of the vehicle, records show, the officer found a $100 bill that fell from the dashboard. A more intensive search later turned up twenty $100 bills and a plastic bag with shredded funny money. Gibbs was charged with forgery and possession of pot and counterfeit currency.
A month later, Teaneck police charged him with money laundering, tampering with evidence, having and being under the influence of marijuana and theft, among other counts, according to police records.
He was ordered held on $10,000 — of which a $25,000 bond got him released the following day. Days later, Leonia police arrested him for pot possession.
Leonia officers arrested Gibbs again in May, on charges that included money laundering, making terroristic threats and using a juvenile to commit a felony, records show. That made three arrests in three months.
Then came the Fairview bust in August. Gibbs was taken to the Bergen County Jail and was bailed out the next day — same as before.
He was arrested again, this time on Nov. 11 in Teaneck, on charges ranging from carrying drugs to underaged drinking, according to police records. Once again, officers had to chase him down.
This time, Gibbs is being held on $75,000 bail, charged with two counts of resisting arrest, forgery, possession of hollow-nosed bullets, and what is officially known as “financial solicitation of criminal activity.” The state is also charging him with violating parole as a result of the arrest, records show.
Other departments have been notified and an investigation is continuing.
If you’ve received any counterfeit bills recently, call your local police department and mention this story.
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