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A Rutherford police officer responding to a call of a FedEx box burglary on May 8 spotted Thomas Mensah trying to crack open another one, Police Chief John Russo said.
Mensah, 25, of Flushing, NY fled in a vehicle with stolen license plates, the chief said.
That didn't deter Detective Russell Snyder, who gathered and reviewed area surveillance video and pulled a fingerprint off a package that Russo said Mensah handled but didn't ake.
It turns out Mensah has a history of similar thefts in Westchester and Nassau counties, as well as in North Jersey, records show.
The Westchester case involved hundreds of thousands of dollars in checks that were in stolen FedEx packages and shipping envelopes, authorities there said.
Mensah had been arrested in New York and was extradited to New Jersey on Monday, Sept. 25 to face the charges out of Rutherford: multiple counts of burglary and theft, as well as conspiracy, resisting arrest by fleeing in a motor vehicle and possession of burglary tools.
More charges are likely as police from various jurisdictions confer with the Bergen County Prosecutor's Office and one another.
Mensah, meanwhile, remains held in the Bergen County Jail.
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