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As CLIFFVIEW PILOT originally reported last week, Rochelle Park police responding to a call from a Rochelle Avenue resident that a strange man was banging on her door on March 11 said they found their suspect, 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 at the time.
The caller said she found two packaged iPhones on her porch but didn’t know the addressees.
Duany Perez-Clemente (MUGSHOT: Courtesy ROCHELLE PARK PD)
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 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 remained held on $20,000 bail in the Bergen County Jail, charged with receiving stolen property, attempted theft by deception and defiant trespassing.
Washington Township police today revealed that they made a similar arrest on March 13.
Lt. Rich Skinner spoke with a Washington Avenue resident who said “a black or [H]ispanic male rang his doorbell asking him for a package that was delivered to the residence” after receiving a box with cellphones that he didn’t order, Officer Heather Castronova said this afternoon.
Skinner had noticed a man leaving the area in a car with New York license plates, so he stopped it on Colonial Boulevard, Castronova said.
The female driver matched a description given by the Washington Avenue resident, the officer said.
Backup officers arrived, and both she and two male passengers were ordered out of the car.
“Due to a language barrier, PO Liz Zimmerman of the Hillsdale PD was dispatched to the scene to assist with translating,” Castronova said. “All three parties were taken into custody without incident and transported to police headquarters.”
Medina Fontana, 22, and Aldo Suarez, 48, were both charged with receiving stolen property and conspiracy to commit theft.
The third vehicle occupant was released without charges.
Castronova said Police Chief Glenn Hooper “commends the resident in this incident for reporting the suspicous incidents in a timely matter and assisting us in apprehending these criminals.”
MUGSHOTS: Courtesy WASHINGTON TOWNSHIP PD
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