Man Uses Fire Department Credit Card To Make Purchases In Northern Westchester: Police

A man faces identity theft charges after ordering a replacement credit card for a fire department in Northern Westchester and using it to make purchases, police said.

A man fraudulently ordered a replacement credit card for the Bedford Hills Fire District and used it to make purchases, police said.
Photo Credit: *Pixabay/Michal Jarmoluk*

Ben Crnic

02/12/2023 8:30 a.m.

On Saturday, Dec. 10, the Town of Bedford Police Department received a report from the Bedford Hills Fire District that they had identified numerous unauthorized charges on their credit card statement that had not been done by anyone with the fire department.

The Fire District had then discovered that a replacement credit card was fraudulently ordered and received by an unknown suspect, Bedford Police said.

Bedford Police detectives quickly began an investigation into the matter, creating a list of the fraudulent transactions and the locations and times they happened at. They then started looking at surveillance footage of each transaction made at physical locations throughout the Hudson Valley and were able to identify the suspect through facial recognition software and license plate reader data.

The suspect was named as 41-year-old Orange County resident Edward Johnson Jr. of Middletown, who was arrested on Thursday, Feb. 9.

Johnson is charged with the following:

First-degree identity theft;
Third-degree grand larceny.

He was arraigned in the Town of Bedford Court and will appear in court on a future date.

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