Brick Best Buy Among Several Where Man Used Fake Credit Cards, Police Say

by Patricia A. Miller

Stafford Township police have charged a Brooklyn man with credit card theft after he was found with 15 fraudulent credit cards in the Manahawkin Best Buy store, Patrolman Christopher Fritz said.

Police responded to the store on July 9 on a report of a suspicious man trying to use multiple declined credit cards to buy $2,500 in Apple Macbook computers. The suspect tried to flee the store, but was apprehended nearby by Patrolman Adam Sherer and Detective Drew Smith.

Smith charged Arnold W. Ludd Sr., 42, Brooklyn, with credit card theft, theft by deception, endorsing stolen credit cards and fraudulent use of a credit card, Fritz said.

Further investigation determined that Ludd obtained the credit card information of more than 15 victims and made fraudulent credit cards with the victims’ account numbers bearing their names. Ludd was later linked to similar scams at the Best Buy stores in Howell, Brick Township and Manalapan that occurred earlier that day, he said.

Charges of identity theft are pending further investigation.

Ludd was taken to the Ocean County Jail in Toms River in lieu of $50,000 bail, Fritz said.