May 10
A motor vehicle stop, at 1:07 a.m., on River Road resulted in the arrest of Rolando Diaz, 37, of Wallington, on charges of possession of drugs and two tickets charging him with failure to observe a traffic control device and failure to exhibit registration.
May 8
At 7:10 a.m., police were called to a Prospect St. location on a report of criminal mischief to an auto. The vehicle’s owner told police that sometime during the night someone slashed the rear driver’s side tire of their vehicle while it was parked in their driveway causing $180 in damages. It was the third time in three weeks the vehicle had been vandalized, the owner told police.
May 7
Three apparently unrelated cases of suspected fraud were reported by three victims, police said.
In the first, logged at 10:04 a.m., the victim told police they purchased a Green Dot MoneyBack gift card, coded to a card number, from Dish Network to get additional channels through a promotional offering and received a credit to their account. But several days later, they received a bill for nearly $1,000. The victim surmised that someone hacked into the Dish Network site, showed the credit and removed the money. Police advised the company of the scam.
Next, at 12:53 p.m., a victim told police that someone claiming to be their grandson told them they were in an accident and broke his nose but, when told he didn’t sound like the victim’s grandson, said he’d call back after getting a lawyer.
And, at 1:35 p.m., police said a resident told them they paid a company $2,000 for work performed but after checking their bank statement, noticed that $4,000 had been removed from their account and that a copy of the check appeared to have been tampered with. The bank issued a stop payment and the resident was advised to file a complaint with the court.
May 5
A Whitford Ave. resident called police at 4:48 p.m. to report that someone had removed the passenger side headlight and assembly from their vehicle. Nothing appeared to be missing from inside the vehicle, police said.
• At 2:36 p.m., a Forest Ave. homeowner told police that while in their backyard, they saw several golf balls arching over their fence. One ball, they said, landed on the roof of their child’s toy car in which the child was sitting. The child wasn’t hurt, they said. They told police they saw a group of juveniles with lacrosse sticks running from the field behind Spring Garden School toward the stairs to Overlook Terrace. Police said they searched but couldn’t find them.
• At 12:42 p.m., police traveled to a Plymouth Road location on a report of a theft from a resident who told police their bank text messaged them about two charges to their account totaling about $1,000 made at an NJ Transit station. Police said the victim realized they’d lost their wallet, a black Kenneth Cole wristlet, in a car wash. The victim canceled the account.
Five incidents of criminal mischief were reported within a seven and a half hour period, police said. At 1:29 a.m., a Bloomfield Ave. resident told police they heard voices and then a vehicle drive away. Looking outside, they noticed that one of their $10 flower pots had been broken. At 6:36 a.m., police on patrol discovered a broken flower pot in the middle of a Prospect St. site and were advised by the owners – who didn’t see or hear anything during the night – that the pot was worth $30. At 7:13 a.m., a Beech St. resident reported that their ceramic bird bath and flower pot had been broken, causing $100 in damages. And, at 8:09 a.m., police received a report from a Coeyman Ave. resident that their $80 goose statue had been vandalized overnight.
May 4
At 2:59 a.m., police responded to a report of criminal mischief at a Spring St. location. A resident told police they were inside their home when they heard a crash and found one of their front windows was broken and a rock eight inches wide was on the living room couch, directly behind the broken window. The resident told police the rock appeared to have been taken from the front yard.
— Ron Leir
