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Mahwah Police Detective Lt. Bussinelli and Detective Sgt. Kevin Hebert watched on surveillance video as Bryan Collazzo, 23, of Mahwah completed a gas sale at the Pilot Travel Center on southbound Route 17, then requested the victim’s credit card a second time, Police Chief James N. Batelli said.
Collazzo then “disappeared behind the fuel pumps with it,” he said.
The victim had gone to police after the $1,370 jewelry bill out of Houston turned up on his bank statement, the chief said.
Bussinelli and Hebert discovered that Collazzo used information he swiped from 10 different credit cards to try and buy merchandise from the Texas retailer 14 times from Nov. 13 through Nov. 27, Batelli said.
The $1,370 purchase was the only one completed, he added.
“The same phone number and shipping address were used for all these transactions,” Batelli said.
Both came back to Collazo, the chief said.
Questioned by the detectives, Collazo “admitted that he was responsible for taking pictures of the front and back of the victim's credit card,” Batelli said. “He also revealed that he also received the shipment of jewelry…and that he had since sold the items.”
Collazo, who has a drug offense history out of Rockland County, was also wanted on an outstanding warrant out of Bergen County, records show.
He was sent to the Bergen County Jail on Wednesday pending a detention hearing on five counts of obtaining and using a stolen credit card and one count of receiving stolen property. Records show he remained in the county lockup on Friday.
Meanwhile, Batelli asked that anyone who may have had their credit card compromised while using it at the Pilot Travel Center during the month of November contact Hebert: (201) 529-1000.
The chief also urged people to “carefully review all their credit card statements to ensure the purchases are accurate.”
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