Belmont Police Log: Identity Stolen in the '90s Continues to Haunt Resident

Will it be a jury trial?

March 2 – At 9:32 p.m., there was a knock on the door at 17 Leslie Rd. It was for the occupant, 46-year-old Godfrey Nsereko. It was the police. They were there concerning a warrant for Nsereko's arrest. The charge: being a jury duty scofflaw. Just a warning to the rest of us. 

Be warned

March 4 – A Unity Avenue man received a call from a man with "a foreign accent" to inform him that we was from his computer's maintenance team and they had received a "warning signal" from his computer indicating that it was "compromised." The Belmont man, fearing the call was an attempt to obtain personnel information, said the next time the "maintenance" man called, he would call the police.  

Freedom suspended

March 5 – At 3:25 p.m., Belmont Police stopped Cynthia LaCroix, 42, of 57 Creeley Rd. and arrested her from driving around with a suspended license. 

Warrant this

March 5 – John Golden, 24, of 133 Temple Park Ln. in Watertown was stopped by Belmont cops and arrested. He had a warrant on his person for a past operating under the influence, being unlicensed and crossing marked lanes. 

Video caught the suspect

March 5 – A Belmont man called police to say that someone used his credit card after he mistakenly left his wallet at the Trapelo Road CVS or it was lifted off his person by someone unknown to him. Going to the video, the police saw on the CVS security camera that the victim had placed his wallet in his back pocket. They also discovered that approximately 30 minutes after he reported his wallet "lost," a woman used the man's credit card to pick up $49.97 worth of stuff from the A&R Market just down the road on Trapelo. The A&R security camera showed a woman using the card so Belmont Police – who was able to identify the culprit – has filed a criminal complaint for using a credit card under false pretenses and fraud. 

Lots of suspended stuff

March 6 – Jose Cruz, 44, from 322 Blue Hill Ave. in Boston, was arrested by Belmont Police for driving around with a suspended driver's license, a suspended registration and being uninsured. 

The apartment rent check scam: unsuccessful

March 6 – Just after noon, a Marion Road landlord called Belmont Police about an attempt to part her from her money. She listed an apartment for rent on Criagslist and got a response from a nice person in Florida who was interested in the place. The nice person said he would send a $3,000 deposit for the apartment. But the nice person asked she could send him back $1,750 in a personal check only so he could have his vehicle transported to Belmont. Conversations were sent via e-mail several times with the nice person who kept saying that he needed the $1,750 sent to him at the same time he would produce the $3,000. The Marion Road resident didn't feel good about the exchange and for good reason: the man was a grifter attempting to have her send the $1,750 in exchange for a check that was either a fraud or from a dead account. 

One stolen, an identity is always lost

March 6 – Just after 1 p.m., a King Street resident reported to the police that a bank called him in November saying that he had maxed out his new credit card for $8,500 and wanted to know how he was going to pay it back. He could only shake his head as fraudulently-issued credit cards in his name has been following the King Street man since 1998 when his identity was initially stolen. And 15 years later, the scam continues as in December and January two new bank credit cards were falsely issued to him. An investigation found that the fraudsters not only had his name, address and phone number, they used a counterfeit Georgia Driver's License using his photo to obtain the cards. He is working with the card companies to straighten this all out. 

Same name, different person

March 7 – An Ash Street woman got a call that her Kohl's account was closed because she wouldn't pay her $138 outstanding credit. ARGH! It couldn't be her because while the store had the correct social security number and date of birth, the address being used was in Quincy and the Ash Street resident has lived in Belmont for the past 30 years. It turns out this is not the first time this has happened as businesses and banks are confusing her with a woman in Quincy who has the same name. 

The income tax filing scam: successful

March 7 – A Prospect Street resident called Belmont Police to report that her daughter's identity was probably stolen. The Belmont resident was attempting to file her daughter's income tax form when the IRS told her that it had already been entered into the Service's system. Turns out the daughter worked the previous year in Florida, which besides being a destination for aging Northerners, dinner at 3 p.m., hurricanes, people who carry handguns as sidearms into the local supermarkets and Southern hospitality, it is also the epicenter for a type of fraud using tax returns. The scam works like this: A grifter will obtain the W-2 of someone, they will file the claim early – knowing most people wait to the last minute to file – and have any refund sent to a post office box or an abandoned building. And the daughter's company sent two W-2s, one to her address in Belmont and the other to an address in Florida. The IRS and police are investigating.