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Rochelle Park, Lyndhurst police charge 2 East Coast diversion crew members in $6,000 theft of GoPro cameras

YOU READ IT HERE FIRST: Thanks to a fingerprint, authorities have charged two alleged members of a diversion theft crew with taking $6,000 worth of GoPro cameras from stores in Rochelle Park and Lyndhurst on the same day this past June.

Photo Credit: ROCHELLE PARK, LYNDHURST POLICE DEPARTMENTS
Photo Credit: ROCHELLE PARK, LYNDHURST POLICE DEPARTMENTS

Nestor Martinez, 25, and Kevin Rodriguez, 23, both of Queens, were being held in the Essex County Jail following a roundup by New Jersey State Police last weekend.

Both are part of theft ring that’s worked up and down the East Coast, authorities told CLIFFVIEW PILOT.

Two other members — a man and a woman — remained at large and were being sought.

The thieves hit the Blue Water Divers store on Route 17 on June 5.

While one crew member pulled a clerk to the opposite side of the store, distracting her, Martinez cut wire locks securing eight GoPro Hero 3+ cameras, Detective Jim DePreta told CLIFFVIEW PILOT at the time.

He handed the cameras to a female accomplice, who stuffed them into a black shoulder bag, the detective said.

The team then pulled the same stunt, taking four cameras, at the Harley Davidson dealership on Essex Street minutes later, he said.

A fourth member joined the crew at JPR Cycles on Park Avenue later that day, Lyndhurst Police Capt. John Valente told CLIFFVIEW PILOT at the time.
he team then pulled the same stunt, taking four cameras, at the Harley Davidson dealership on Essex Street minutes later, he said.

CLICK BELOW for video (courtesy LYNDHURST PD):

While two men kept the attendant occupied, the man and woman took three GoPro cameras, the captain said.

“The male cut off the locks while the female stuffed them into a shoulder bag,” the same method used in Rochelle Park, he said.

The cameras are valued at $399 each.

The big break came when Martinez lifted a camera off a shelf and rearranged it to look as if nothing was missing, DePreta told CLIFFVIEW PILOT this morning.

The Bergen County Sheriff’s Bureau of Criminal Identification found a match, and both he and Rodriguez were charged.

Additional arrests and charges were pending as the investigations out Lyndhurst and Rochelle Park continue.

IMAGES courtesy ROCHELLE PARK, LYNDHURST POLICE DEPARTMENTS

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