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Rochelle Park police grab Passaic man gathering iPhones shipped to unsuspecting customers

A 25-year-old Passaic man was out collecting replacement iPhones that scammers had sent to unsuspecting residents in three towns when Rochelle Park police arrested him yesterday afternoon, authorities said.

Photo Credit: Courtesy ROCHELLE PARK PD

Police responding to a call from a Rochelle Avenue resident that a strange man was banging on her door found Duany Perez-Clemente talking to her neighbor.

Perez-Clemente told Sgt. Dan Urban and Officer Todd Starling that he was trying to retrieve a friend’s mailed cellphone, Detective James DePreta told CLIFFVIEW PILOT.

The caller said she found two packaged iPhones on her porch but didn’t know the addressees.

Detectives who arrived soon after found two other packages of iPhones in Perez-Clemente’s car that had been mailed to a Passaic Street address in Maywood with two different names on the labels, DePreta said.

They contacted colleagues in Hillsdale, who found four more packages that Perez-Clemente had planned to pick up, he said.

They also got a call last night from Maywood police, who said a resident reported receiving a cellphone that wasn’t ordered.

An insurance company had sent the phones as replacements to the various addresses after the scammers filed bogus claims, the detective said.

Using delivery apps, Perez-Clemente knew where and when they were being dropped off, DePreta said.

Perez-Clemente was being held on $20,000 bail in the Bergen County Jail, charged with receiving stolen property, attempted theft by deception and defiant trespassing.

Detectives were working with their colleagues in Hillsdale and Maywood to identify both the victims and the perpetrators

MUGSHOT: Courtesy ROCHELLE PARK PD

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