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Stephanie Ortiz, 20, of Totowa had just swiped a package from a home on Cecelia Drive when officers responding to that call got another from someone at a commercial building on Riverview Drive, Detective Capt. Dan Daly said.
Ortiz had been “observed un-packaging items and discarding the packages and boxes in their dumpster" there, Daly said.
Sgt. Luis Oliveira and Patrol Officers Angelo Giammanco and Joseph Carbone retrieved the discarded boxes and obtained several addresses off labels that they passed on to township detectives, the captain said.
Ortiz was identified as the thief and taken into custody by Detective Sgt. Vincent Ricciardelli and Detectives Adrian Sulejmani and Thomas Kartanowicz as she arrived home a few hours later, he said.
“Most of these items, which included holiday gifts and other goods, were returned to their respective owners on the same night,” Daly said.
Several of them provided home security footage of Ortiz at work that the captain said “greatly assisted in this case.”
Police charged Ortiz with various counts of theft, among other counts, before releasing her pending a first appearance in Superior Court in Paterson.
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