Two Charged With Credit Card Theft

Police charged two men with credit card fraud after police found them with 13 credit cards containing other people’s information at the Mid-State Mall on Route 18, Feb. 17.

According to police, Sgt. Jeffrey Marino saw Billy R Merizalde, 27, of Brooklyn, N.Y., and Geovanny A Ortega, 30, of Queens, N.Y., leaving the area of Meineke in the Mid-State Mall - the business had recently been burglarized and additional patrols had been dispatched to the area. After watching the two men enter a vehicle with a New York registration, Sgt. Marino stopped them and found the credit cards in the vehicle.

The cards were embossed with the suspects’ names, but a subsequent investigation revealed that information stored on the cards belonged to other people, police said. In addition, the men admitted to police that they had tried to buy a video game at Game Stop, located in the mall. Police said the store’s manager said the men tried to purchase a game system valued at $400, but since the card was not accepted, the sale was declined and the men left the store.

Both men were taken to the Middlesex County Adult corrections center in lieu of $25,000 bail.