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All five were ordered held on $1.5 million each in the Bergen County Jail following initial appearances in Teaneck Municipal Court this afternoon.
The cellphones were stolen during a basketball tournament last weekend in Parsippany, Police Chief Robert A. Wilson said this afternoon.
Soon after, one of the victims saw them for sale on Craigslist.com, he said. The juvenile notified the other victims and “arrangements were made” to meet with the seller in the parking lot of the Marriott Hotel in Teaneck” at 6:30 last night, the chief said.
There, a man identified as Mohamed Aly, 19, of Jersey City, pulled up in a vehicle and talked briefly with the 16-year-old who’d swiped the phones, Wilson said.
Posing as a buyer, Aly “convinced the juvenile to enter his vehicle and proceeded to drive the juvenile to a different area of the property where Aly’s five friends were waiting,” the chief said.
A second man was wearing a badge over his neck, “leading the juvenile to believe that he was a police officer,” he said.
The teen was then pulled from the vehicle, Wilson said. His cellphone was taken, along with the four stolen ones, he said.
At that point, “a security officer from the complex began to head home after his shift when he observed the activity,” Wilson said.
As he pulled up, “the group forced the juvenile back into their vehicle and drove off with him,” the chief said.
But the guard stayed on their tail and called police.
Responding officers stopped the vehicle at the Enrite Gas Station on Teaneck Road and took the five adults and a juvenile into custody.
Also seized was the juvenile who was selling the phones.
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