Man who left backpack on bus reports credit card fraud, leads MPD to arrest Floridian traveling trio

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MANCHESTER, NH – Three men who traveled to New Hampshire from Florida for work were arrested in connection with a Manchester Police Department fraud investigation from the theft of a backpack following a commuter bus ride.

F Cardinas
F. Cardinas/MPD

According to a police narrative of the arrests, the victim, age 60, realized he’d left his backpack on a Boston Express Bus, which had picked him up in Boston and dropped him off in Tyngsboro, Mass. The lost backpack, which contained jewelry, his work laptop and his wallet, was reported to police on Aug. 26, after the victim noticed unauthorized activity on his credit cards.

Purchases were made on the victim’s credit card at various Manchester locations, including: More than $500 of merchandise purchased from the Sunglasses Hut at the Mall of New Hampshire; almost $1,400 in purchases were made at Walmart; and multiple charges at city restaurants were made between August 26 and August 28, 2018.

Manchester Police Detectives Justin Breton and Joseph Lorenzo investigated the fraud case. They obtained video images of the suspects from the store manager at Sunglasses Hut. They also obtained images from Walmart and soon realized it was the same three men who they located at an area hotel.

W Cardinas
W. Cardinas/MPD

Investigators determined at least two of the three suspects responsible for the fraudulent purchase were on the same bus as the victim, and were staying at the Comfort Inn. They arrived at the Comfort Inn on Aug. 29 and made contact with Alain Lopez, 25, of Homestead, FLA, Filipe Cardenas, 23, and William Cardenas, 19, both of Hialeah, FLA.

The men said they were contracted by a national tree company and were staying at the Comfort Inn while working in the area. Detectives spoke with the three men and ultimately placed them under arrest and transported them to police headquarters.

Detectives located the items left in the backpack, as well as the items purchased with the credit cards once they executed the search warrant in two separate hotel rooms.

Lopez
Lopez/MPD

Felipe Cardenas was charged with theft of lost or mislaid property and three counts of fraudulent use of credit cards. Lopez was charged with theft of lost/mislaid property and three counts fraudulent use of credit cards. William Cardenas was charged with criminal liability to theft of lost/mislaid property and four counts of fraudulent use of credit cards. All three men were scheduled to appear in Hillsborough County Superior Court-North on August 30, 2018.

 

 

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Manchester NH Police Department

This press release was issued by Manchester, NH, Police Department.