WESTFIELD, NJ – The Westfield Police Department has released information about the following incidents recently that involved police response. These calls for service do not represent all calls responded to by the department during the time period referenced.
Police Blotter – July 10 to July 16, 2022
On July 10th, at 9 am, a resident of the 200 block of Sunset Avenue reported a suspicious incident. The incident involved an individual driving slowly in the neighborhood, and then parking said vehicle. The individual then exited the vehicle and began walking around the neighborhood, taking pictures of the area. There was no apparent legitimate purpose to the individual’s actions.
On July 12th, at 9 am, a resident of the 900 block of Grandview Avenue reported a Bank of America credit card was received at her home that was opened by an unauthorized person. The card was applied for using the resident’s identifying information. The receipt of the card was reported to Bank of America, where it was ultimately canceled, and no monetary loss was suffered.
On July 12th at 9:04 am, a victim reported that their wallet valued at $40.00 was stolen from inside their vehicle while the vehicle was parked and unoccupied. The victim stated the windows of the vehicle were down at the time of the theft. The victim stated that approximately $300.00 in U.S. currency was inside the wallet along with various items at the time of the theft.
On July 14th, a resident of the 0-100 block of Tudor Oval reported that he was the victim of a Facebook/Venmo scam where he lost $220.00. The victim states that he found a cooler for sale on “Facebook Marketplace”. The seller profile appeared legitimate, and a purchase price was agreed upon. The victim sent $220.00 to a Venmo account the seller provided. Once the transaction was complete, the seller’s profile was removed and the cooler was never sent. At this time the victim is at a total monetary loss of $220.00.
On July 12th at 7 pm, a resident reported that a suspect stole her identity and took approximately $2,500.00 from a Bank of America account and $20,000.00 from a Citibank account. This suspect had also created other fraudulent accounts in her name.
On July 13th, a resident of the 0-100 block of Summit Court reports that she was the victim of fraud / identity theft. The resident received an email believed to be from “Norton Antivirus”, advising that she would be charged for a subscription. To cancel these charges a phone number was provided.
The victim called the number provided to cancel and an unknown male with a heavy “foreign accent” walked her through steps to cancel. The actor asked for bank account information and personal identifying information from the victim. The actor was able to convince the victim to ultimately withdraw a large sum of money from her bank account that would be picked up at her home. The victim realized this was a scam and contacted the police at this time. There has been no monetary loss suffered by the victim at this time.
On July 14th at around 6:45 pm, Sergeant Bruno, Officer Gill and Officer Hayes located a blue colored 2018 BMW X5 reported stolen out of Huntington, NY. Officers attempted to stop the motor vehicle at which time the suspect initiated a pursuit and fled at a high rate of speed. The pursuit was terminated on Route 22 Eastbound in Mountainside. The driver was observed to be a bald black male in his late 20’s or early 30’s wearing a black shirt.
At 5 pm on July 15th, a yellow colored Trimble S6 surveying station was located on the 200 block of Sinclair Place with no owner in the nearby area. This item was transported to Westfield Police Headquarters and secured.
On July 16th, police reported a resident’s vehicle was parked on the 500 block of Westfield Avenue from 07/14/2022 to the early morning hours of 07/16/2022 where at that time, the owner found the driver’s side mirror to be cracked and broken. The monetary damage amount is reported to be approximately $1,000.00.
On July 16th, an employee of an establishment on the 100 block of Central Avenue reported a theft of services that occurred at approximately 3:30 pm. The employee went on to state that two individuals came to the establishment and ordered approximately $78.15 worth of items. After consuming those items, they then left the area heading northbound on Central Avenue. Shortly thereafter, they fled on foot at a high rate of speed. It should be noted that no further description of the suspects were provided at this time.