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Jason DeMatteo -- who is suspected in a string of similar fast-talking cons that stretch from Bergen County to the Jersey Shore -- served more than eight years in state prison after being convicted of killing a 70-year-old Bayonne grandmother in a February 2009 car crash while he was high on cocaine, records show.
Glen Rock and Lyndhurst detectives investigating lottery ticket thefts in their towns quickly identified the 35-year-old DeMatteo, who was being sought by police in several other towns.
Glen Rock Detective Sgt. Jim Calaski and Lyndhurst Acting Detective Sgt. Vincent Auteri, joined by Glen Rock Detectives TJ Graziani and Lucas Doney, went to DeMatteo's Newark home Wednesday morning and spotted him soon after, Glen Rock Police Chief Dean Ackermann said.
DeMatteo tried to drive off but crashed his car took blocks away, the chief said.
He bailed out and tried to run but was caught by Graziani, assisted by the other detectives and uniformed Newark police officers, Ackermann said.
Glen Rock and Lyndhurst detectives filed theft charges against DeMatteo, who remained hospitalized in police custody in Newark on Thursday. City police also charged him with a drug offense.
DeMatteo is suspected of similar lottery ticket scams at pharmacies and convenience stores in Bayonne, Union City, Springfield, Old Bridge and Oceanport since his release from prison exactly a year ago this past Sunday, authorities said.
A manager at Rock Ridge Pharmacy in Glen Rock told borough police last week that a heavyset man in his 30s approached the cashier saying that he wanted to make a large purchase.
He put a large envelope that looked like it contained cash on the counter, Ackermann said.
“[He] was very talkative and distracted the cashier during the transaction,” the chief said.
“When the cashier became suspicious, the man quickly left the store with $985 worth of lottery tickets,” Ackermann said.
He left behind $309.50 worth of tickets that had been rung up on the lottery machine, resulting in a loss to the store, the chief said.
The cashier opened the envelope and found only paper, he said.
As in Glen Rock, DeMatteo was identified in Lyndhurst from video surveillance images that were distributed among law enforcement agencies.
Lyndhurst police said he requested $1,090 in lottery tickets at Levy's, a Stuyvesant Avenue pharmacy, then fled with them when the cashier wasn't looking.
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