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The observant employee saw the thief make a low-dollar purchase, get $200 cash back, and then repeat the maneuver a half hour later, Detective Sgt. Vincent Auteri said.
A manager called police after determining that a stolen debit card was used, Auteri said.
Responding Lt. Kevin Breslin and Officers Phil Reina, Michael Giangeruso and Anthony Giaquinto found the suspect parked near a rear lot outside the supermarket with a woman and their 2-year-old child who’d both accompanied him each time in the store, the sergeant said.
Identified as 25-year-old Anthony Peguero, he was carrying the stolen debit card and $400 in cash, Auteri said.
The woman was released without charges.
Peguero, meanwhile, was sent to the Bergen County Jail – only to have a judge order him released, pending further court action, under New Jersey’s 2017 bail reform law.
He’s charged with several counts of credit card fraud, theft and theft by deception.
“Certain locations are a preference for credit card thieves because they offer a $200 maximum cash withdrawal amount,” Auteri noted. “Most locations limit the withdrawal amount to $100.”
Last month, a manager at the same Stop & Shop in Lewandowski Commons alerted police to two Bronx men who’d repeatedly gone into the supermarket and withdrew cash on small purchases.
Responding officers found both of them carrying several stolen credit cards, $221 worth of merchandise bought at the store and $2,800 in cash – all in twenties, Auteri said.
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