Police Investigate Fraud, Make Retail Theft Arrests: Newtown Township

NEWTOWN TOWNSHIP, PA - The Newtown Township Police Department reported the following incidents and arrests between August 18 and August 22:

August 18

• Police were dispatched around 8 p.m. for a single-vehicle traffic accident located at Swamp Road and Mega Way. As a result of the investigation, the driver was taken into custody on an active arrest warrant from Trenton, N.J., and was processed, arraigned, and transferred without incident.

August 19

• Police were dispatched to a Wrightstown Township residence around 1 p.m. for a fraud report. The resident explained that checks were stolen out of her mailbox, altered, and cashed. The bank notified the resident of the fraud and compensated her for the loss.
• An employee of a local business in Newtown responded to headquarters around 3:30 p.m. to report a fraud. The employee explained that she recently started the job and received an email from someone claiming to be her CEO. They instructed her to purchase numerous Apple gift cards with cash and to send them the codes. The total value of the loss was $900.

August 20

• At approximately 3:15 p.m. police were dispatched to the TD Bank on West Road for the report of a fraud in progress. As a result of the investigation, a man was taken into custody without incident as a fugitive of justice with warrants out of Texas, Georgia, Florida, New Jersey, Tennessee, North Carolina, and Michigan.
• A Newtown Township resident responded to headquarters to report fraud. She explained that someone claiming to be from Amazon contacted her and said someone opened several bank accounts in her name. For them to investigate the matter, they then instructed the resident to withdraw $20,000 from their bank account and transfer it into a Bitcoin machine. Fortunately, the Bitcoin machine would not process the transaction, and the resident realized it was a scam.

August 21

• Police were dispatched to Lululemon around 10:45 a.m. for a retail theft in progress. It was reported that three men and one woman took several items from the store without paying and fled in a grey Hyundai. Police surveyed the area for the vehicle and determined that it was reported stolen out of Philadelphia that morning. The vehicle was eventually found unoccupied in Middletown Township. As a result of the investigation, the four subjects (three juveniles and one adult) were located on foot in the area George School and taken into custody without incident.
• Police were dispatched to McCaffrey’s Market shortly before 8:30 p.m. for the report of an attempted retail theft. Two juveniles attempted to steal two 12-packs of Twisted Tea from the store but were stopped by the store manager. Police later identified the juveniles and spoke with their parents.

August 22

• At approximately 2:35 p.m. a Wrightstown Township business owner responded to headquarters to report a check fraud. The investigation is ongoing at this time.