Police say man stole car, wallet

Jose Aponte-Ortiz, 25, allegedly took keys and wallet from locker room, then drove stolen minivan to liquor store for fraudulent rum purchase

Police say a 25-year-old Allentown man stole one man’s car and another man’s wallet from a Hatfield Township business and then drove to an area liquor store and bought a bottle of rum with a credit card stolen from one of the victims.

After a brief investigation, Jose Enrique Aponte-Ortiz, of the 200 block of North Tenth Street, was taken into custody and charged with multiple felony counts of theft, receiving stolen property and access device fraud, as well

as other offenses, in connection with an alleged series of events on the afternoon of March 31.

Hatfield Township police said in charging documents that cops responded to Clemens Food Group at 2700 Clemens Road after one employee reported that his car keys, a watch and other items had been taken from his bag inside a locker room, while another employee said that his car keys and wallet had also been taken from his bag in the locker room.

One of the men told police that after discovering his keys were missing, he went outside and found that his minivan was missing, according to an affidavit of probable cause.

A security officer told police that a man who had come in that morning to fill out a job application and was later interviewed, but had not been offered a job, was “acting suspicious” prior to the thefts and hanging around asking people for money, the affidavit indicates. That individual was seen on surveillance video entering the locker room — which was in the same area as the interview

room for prospective employees — then exiting the business and walking toward the area where the victim’s minivan was parked, then out of view of cameras, shortly before the minivan was seen leaving the facility, according to court documents.

Cops looked at the job application and saw that the suspect had written down his name as Jose Enrique Aponte-Ortiz and provided his address and phone number, the affidavit indicates.

During the on-scene investigation, one of the victims told police that his credit card had just been used at the Walmart and a liquor store at the Hilltown Crossings shopping center. Cops went to the liquor store and looked at video footage of the suspect buying a $25 bottle of rum with the stolen credit card and then attempting to make another purchase of about $77 worth of liquor 15 minutes later but leaving the store after he was asked for identification, according to the affidavit.

The next day, Allentown police went to Aponte-Ortiz’s residence at the behest of Hatfield police and he provided a photo ID in his name that matched the suspect seen on video.

Aponte-Ortiz was taken into custody and arraigned

April 2 on 15 criminal counts, then committed to Montgomery County Correctional Facility in lieu of $25,000 cash bail, where he remained Wednesday while awaiting a preliminary hearing set for April 28.