Yet another town resident has fallen victim to identity theft, the Nutley Police Department said.
The victim came to police headquarters July 25 and told police Credit Karma sent an alert that someone had opened an account in their name with the Dish Network.
The resident was told, police said, to enroll in the federal Identity Theft Database, but declined to do so.
Meanwhile, the Nutley police released the following incidents that occurred between July 25 and July 31:
July 25
• A Bloomfield Ave. resident told police their skateboard was stolen. The victim walked away from the $200 board for a short time and returned to find it missing, police said.
• A motor vehicle check led to the arrest of a Nutley woman on possession of a controlled dangerous substance, police said. Lisette Irizarry, 18, was taken to HQ, processed and released on a summons, pending court.
July 26
A Grant Ave. resident told police they found a Stop & Shop shopping handbasket in their garbage, and they had no idea how it got there, police said.
Inside the basket were, according to police, a lot of sweets, such as Oreo cookies, Swiss Fudge cookies, a cinnamon roll, milk and more. The items and basket were returned to Stop & Shop, but only the basket survived — all the food was discarded, police said.
July 27
• A Passaic Ave. resident told police some animals had been breaking into the trash of a nearby eatery during the night, and the silly little buggers were taking the food to their property to eat, all while causing a great big mess, police said.
Police said they responded to the eatery, but weren’t able to connect with any employees or the owner. Because of that, the resident was advised they had the right to file a complaint against the business, police said.
• Another fraud victim came to HQ to report being the victim of ID theft, police said. The victim told police someone allegedly purchased more than $5,000 in items from Verizon and AT&T retail stores. T-Mobile, Macy’s and Sprint also said that someone made unauthorized inquires on the victim’s credit report.
The victim filed an identity theft form at HQ , police said.
• Police said they arrested a 22-year-old Nutley man after a concerned citizen called police to report a man shooting drugs inside a Mini Cooper.
When police arrived at the scene on Franklin Ave., they arrested Steven Nemec, charged him with possession of drug paraphernalia and released him with a court date.
The following day, however, the Essex County Prosecutor’s Office got a search warrant for the car and based on what they found when they searched it, Nemec was additionally charged with possession of crack cocaine, possession of heroin, possession of a hypodermic needle and another count of possession of drug paraphernalia, police said.
David Voza Jr., 21, of Lyndhurst, whom police said was also in the car when they found Nemec, was also charged with possession of crack cocaine, possession of heroin and possession of drug paraphernalia.
Nemec was remanded to the Essex County Jail on $10,000 bail with a 10% option he couldn’t come up with. Voza was released on his own recognizance, also pending court.
July 28
A Nutley man who was driving poorly on Passaic Ave. was arrested on drug-related charges after police said they found the drugs in his car during a pullover.
While driving along Passaic Ave., police said Justin Pearly, 33, hit the curb twice. When they pulled him over, police said they found, in plain view, numerous empty glassine folds and syringes in the passenger area. It was at this point they got Pearly out of the car and arrested him.
During a subsequent search, police said they further found suspected heroin, hundreds of empty folds and 13 syringes scattered about the front passenger-side floor.
Police said Pearly’s charges included possession of CDS, possession of paraphernalia, possession of syringes and he was summonsed on CDS possession in a motor vehicle, careless driving and driving with an open container of alcohol.
Pearly was released on his own recognizance, pending court, police said.
July 29
A resident told police their no longer used temporary license plate had allegedly been used by someone to evade an EZ Pass toll in New York.
Police said the victim threw the temp tag in the trash and that it’s likely someone took it from there. The victim got a summons from EZ Pass on a Pontiac, but the plate was for a completely different car.
Police said the temp tag was entered into the stolen license plate database, but it remains unclear if the victim will still be responsible for the toll-evasion summons.
– Kevin Canessa Jr.
Learn more about the writer ...
Kevin A. Canessa Jr. is the editor of and broadcaster at The Observer, an organization he has served since 2006. He is responsible for the editorial content of the newspaper and website, the production of the e-Newspaper, writing several stories per week (including the weekly editorial), conducting live broadcasts on social media channels such as YouTube, Facebook, and X, including a weekly recap of the news — and much more behind the scenes. Between 2006 and 2008, he introduced the newspaper to its first-ever blog — which included podcasts, audio and video. Originally from Jersey City, Kevin lived in Kearny until 2004, lived in Port St. Lucie. Florida, for four years until February 2016 and in March of that year, he moved back to Kearny to return to The Observer full time. Click Here to send Kevin an email.