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Detective Lts. Ronald F. Waldt and Benjamin Totten were investigating a series of front-step thefts when they obtained surveillance video that they said gave them a “firm” suspect and vehicle description.
Detectives shared information with their colleagues in the neighboring municipalities, then caught a break on Wednesday.
Shortly after 3:30 p.m., Waldt said, an alert postal carrier saw a man later identified as Johan Arroyave Gaviria, 32, of Brooklyn “walk up the front steps of a residence on Sherwood Avenue” and pick up a package left by the door.
“Once he became aware that the postal carrier had spotted him, the suspect dropped the package and fled the scene in his vehicle,” Waldt said.
The postal carrier called police with a license plate number of Gaviria's Nissan Sentra, the lieutenant said.
Police quickly stopped the vehicle on dead-ended Rock Road and arrested Gaviria after finding stolen items connected to thefts in the borough and other towns in his trunk, he said.
They charged him with receiving stolen property and theft and released him pending court action.
Waldt thanked Fort Lee and Tenafly police, as well as the postal carrier and other witnesses who provided video and information leading to the arrest.
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