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Detectives who were watching a parking lot outside the Bergen County Board of Social Services after receiving the tip spotted 25-year-old Junior Santana-Delacruzage behind the wheel of a 2011 Porsche following a delivery driver Wednesday night, Detective Sgt. James DePreta said.
They pulled him over after he accepted five packages containing cellphones addressed to different people and addresses -- none of them his, DePreta said Thursday.
Working with the Bergen County Prosecutor's Office, detectives found that Santana-Delacruz "filed fraudulent insurance claims on unsuspecting victims cellular accounts," the sergeant said.
The phones -- valued at $400 to $800 each -- were then "shipped to a local area which encompasses the delivery driver's route," where Santana-Delacruz collected them, he said.
A search of Santana-Delacruz's home turned up personal idenfication information for "a large amount" of victims, as well as $26,000 in suspected ill-gotten proceeds, DePreta said.
The investigation was continuing as detectives from Rochelle Park and the prosecutor's office work to identify additional victims and co-conspirators.
Santana-Delacruz was ordered held on $20,000 bail, charged with theft by deception, trafficking in personal identification and computer-facilitated theft.
Authorities asked that anyone who might have been victimized in the scheme call Rochelle Park police: (201) 843-1515.
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