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Police responding to a call at the local Costco on March 16 said the woman, approached by security, bolted from the store after trying to make a fraudulent credit card purchase, Capt. Laurence W. Martin said Tuesday.
It was the same woman, they told police, who'd gotten away with previous attempts, he said.
"The purchases almost always included a 65-inch television," Martin said. "She also had been accompanied by another female co-conspirator," whom he identified as Leslie Lugo of Fort Lee.
A security guard who chased after the woman said she "dove into the passenger side of a waiting van" and took off, the captain said.
The guard gave police the license plate number.
Officers Bob Fernandez and Bob Francoise, assisted by Officer Brian Bradford, found the van in front of Motherhood Maternity store on southbound Route 23, Martin said.
Inside it, they could see two 65-inch televisions that had been reported stolen, as well as a credit card skimming device, he said.
Officers arrested the driver -- Glen E Nunez-Brea, 34, of the Bronx -- on an outstanding warrant from the Palisades Interstate Parkway Police Department, Martin said.
The women, he said, were gone.
Officers found Lugo's wallet in the van, along with various Social Security cards with different names and numbers, several credit cards and health insurance cards -- all with different names -- and $3,215 worth of clothing and miscellaneous items fraudulently bought at Costco, the captain said.
Detective William Jurewicz charged Nunez-Brea with possession of a credit card skimming device, then contacted PIP police to pick him up on their warrant, Martin said.
Lugo was then tracked down and arrested on charges of conspiracy to commit theft, he added.
Martin asked that anyone who can identify the alleged accomplice or help police otherwise find her contact Jurewicz at (973) 633-3536 or the Wayne Detective Bureau at (973) 633-3530.
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