Pair Posing as Hoops Boosters Charged with Theft

Police have charged a North Jersey man and a Blackwood woman with posing as sports club boosters and scamming township residents out of a total of about $20 Thursday morning.

Gloucester Township Police were dispatched to the township's Glendora section at around 9:40 a.m. Thursday after a member of the Gloucester Township Neighborhood Watch Group reported a man and a woman were going door to door asking for money to support a Glen Landing Middle School basketball league.

Police caught up to the pair on Front Street using the Neighborhood Watch member's descriptions. They were carrying a container labeled "Glen Landing Middle School Basketball," according to Lt. Edward Bryant.

An investigation revelead the man and the woman were not affiliated with the school or any athletic organizations.

Mark G. Miller, 40, of Passaic, and Tracey Mauz, 38, of Old Black Horse Pike, Blackwood, were charged with theft by deception and soliciting without a permit.

Miller and Mauz had collected a total of $17.94 from victims of the fraud, Bryant said.

Both Miller, who was wanted on contempt of court charges out of Bergen County, and Mauz, who had an active warrant for contempt of court out of Mercer County, were lodged in Camden County Jail. Bail on the Gloucester Township charges was set at $500, police said.

Police urge anyone with additional information or who believes they may have been victimized by Miller and Mauz to call the township crime tip line at 856-842-5560.