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Did You Do Business With This Man? Arrest Made In $90,000 Bergen COVID Gloves Scam Did You Do Business With This Man? Arrest Made In $90,000 Bergen COVID Gloves Scam
Did You Do Business With This Man? Arrest Made In $90,000 Bergen COVID Gloves Scam A judge in Hackensack released an out-of-state man accused of illegally profiting off the COVID pandemic by pocketing $90,000 for what were supposed to be a million personal protective gloves. Nwaokoma Nwakanma, 30, of Westland, MI claimed to work for Bioneutral Chem Group, a bogus Newark-based company that purported to be a legitimate business, Bergen County Prosecutor Mark Musella said. Cresskill police got wind of the scam and alerted detectives from Musella’s Financial Crimes Unit in early June, the prosecutor said. They investigated and obtained an arrest warrant for Nwakanma, of West…

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by Jerry DeMarco
News
WATCH: Commuter Abuses NJ Train Conductor With Racial, Sexual Epithets WATCH: Commuter Abuses NJ Train Conductor With Racial, Sexual Epithets
Watch: Commuter Abuses NJ Train Conductor With Racial, Sexual Epithets Disturbing cellphone video recorded on a New Jersey Transit train shows a man accused of assaulting a conductor spewing hateful profanity against him. The video was shot by Kore James of Paterson, who said he stopped recording and rushed to the conductor's aid when things got physical at the Ridgewood train station. James, a 28-year-old landscape architect, said Thomas Vitulano was already on the the Hoboken-bound train when he got on Monday afternoon in Allendale. "The conductor that was punching holes in tickets was coming around checking everyone's ticket," he said. "The gentleman didn…

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by Jerry DeMarco
News
Pissed-Off Retiree Who Fired Shots Over Bergen Neighbor's 'Loud' Parties Gets 364 Days In Jail Pissed-Off Retiree Who Fired Shots Over Bergen Neighbor's 'Loud' Parties Gets 364 Days In Jail
Pissed-Off Retiree Who Fired Shots Over Bergen Neighbor's 'Loud' Parties Gets 364 Days In Jail UPDATE: A retired defense contractor who admitted firing several shots from a handgun outside his Carlstadt home because of a neighbor's "loud parties and noise" must spend a plea-bargained 364 days in the Bergen County Jail. David Knoll, who had no previous history of trouble, had been suffering from depression exacerbated by COVID-19 isolation when he squeezed off three shots into the air in early May, defense attorney Brian Neary told a judge in Hackensack on Friday. Knoll, 62, for his part, told the judge he didn't intend to kill or frighten anyone with the .22-caliber handgun but reali…

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by Jerry DeMarco
News
Westchester Delivery Driver Gets Four Years In Prison For Seeking Sex With Bergen 'Girl,' 14 Westchester Delivery Driver Gets Four Years In Prison For Seeking Sex With Bergen 'Girl,' 14
Westchester Delivery Driver Gets Four Years In Prison For Seeking Sex With Bergen 'Girl,' 14 A takeout food delivery driver from Westchester who was arrested when he showed up at a Bergen County home for sex with what he thought was a 14-year-old girl was sentenced Friday to four years in state prison. Jacob Smith, 28, used the name “LaidbackJay” to connect on the online app with what turned out to be an undercover detective posing as an underage girl. Smith ended up becoming one of seven men from New York State taken into custody after travelling to the house being used by local and state authorities in what was known as “Operation Home Alone.” Before showing up, Smith “expressed…

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by Jerry DeMarco
News
14 Arrested In ICE Protest At Bergen County Jail 14 Arrested In ICE Protest At Bergen County Jail
14 Arrested In ICE Protest At Bergen County Jail Fourteen protestors were arrested – one of whom was charged with assaulting an officer – during another anti-ICE demonstration at the Bergen County Jail. Those arrested were part of a group that held an overnight vigil across from the jail aimed at stopping the deportation of Marvin Jerezano Peña. Peña has been arrested by police in Red Bank and had a federal deportation hearing scheduled Tuesday in Newark, they said. Trespassing protestors prevented vehicles from entering and leaving the sally port used to shuttle inmates and detainees in and out of the lockup in Hackensack, Bergen Count…

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by Jerry DeMarco
Police & Fire
TD Banks Help Police Bust NJ Fraudster In Chester County, Authorities Say TD Banks Help Police Bust NJ Fraudster In Chester County, Authorities Say
TD Banks Help Police Bust NJ Fraudster In Chester County, Authorities Say A 30-year-old New Jersey woman was busted fraudulently trying to withdraw money from other people's bank accounts in Chester County, authorities said. Aysha Aguilu, of Hackensack, NJ, first attempted to withdraw the money from a West Chester TD bank branch the morning of Thursday, May 27, West Whiteland Police Det. Scott Pezick said. That bank alerted other TD Bank branches in the area, so when Aguilu came to the Exton branch later that day, bank officials immediately called police, Pezick said. There, Aguilu had been trying to withdraw money from the account of a 66-year-old Teaneck, NJ w…

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by Cecilia Levine
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Police: Stolen Gun, Drugs Seized From Philly Couple In Hackensack Stop Police: Stolen Gun, Drugs Seized From Philly Couple In Hackensack Stop
Police: Stolen Gun, Drugs Seized From Philly Couple In Hackensack Stop Hackensack detectives found a Philadelphia couple carrying a stolen handgun and drugs during a traffic stop, authorities said. Narcotics Squad Detectives Kley Peralta and Reuven Lyak stopped the 2015 Acura sedan at the intersection of River and Kansas streets for equipment violations shortly before 7:30 p.m. Monday, Detective Capt. Daniel DeWitt said. The driver, Darinel Perez-Burgos, 28, “had a suspended driver's license and said he did not know who owned the car,” DeWitt said. The passenger, 21-year-old dental assistant Jelayna Sevilla, “provided a suspended Delaware driver's license and…

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by Jerry DeMarco
News
Authorities: Street Evangelist Stalked Englewood Abortion Doc With Drone Authorities: Street Evangelist Stalked Englewood Abortion Doc With Drone
Authorities: Street Evangelist Stalked Englewood Abortion Doc With Drone A self-described Christian missionary from Westchester was arrested after Englewood police said he used a drone to peer into the second-floor office of an abortion doctor he was stalking. Daniel Stephen Courney, 36, of Scarsdale, NY was caught piloting the device -- equipped with a camera and speaker -- outside Metropolitan Medical Associates on Engle Street, where he and other pro-lifers have frequently protested over the years, Detective Capt. Timothy Torell said. Detective Ron Layne learned that Courney had been terrorizing the doctor over a four-month period by “purposely and repeatedly…

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by Jerry DeMarco