Post by Shuftin on Oct 2, 2006 3:36:14 GMT -5
September 29th, 2006
JAMIE SCHRAM
Courtesy of The New York Post
An NYPD cop has been busted for allegedly stealing credit cards - from corpses.
Officer Eduardo Saillant, 38, of the 60th Precinct in Brooklyn allegedly took the cards while taking part in investigations of elderly people's deaths, a law-enforcement source said.
He used the cards to charge an undetermined amount of money at gas stations and stores such as Home Depot, the source said. And when he was busted, he was also found with a stolen police radio, cops said.
Saillant was arrested quietly on Tuesday and freed on his own recognizance Wednesday. He was slapped with misdemeanor charges of petit larceny, criminal possession of stolen property and official misconduct and a felony charge of grand larceny in the fourth degree, which could get him up to four years in prison.
The first alleged theft occurred on May 3, when Saillant and his partner responded to a report of a death on Ocean Parkway in Brooklyn. There they found the body of Howard Apler, 63, who died of heart disease.
Saillant allegedly swiped Apler's Visa card and used it to charge items at a Home Depot and for gasoline.
A short time later, the dead man's sister noticed charges being made to the card and, after talking with relatives, alerted police.
It wasn't clear how investigators zeroed in on Saillant, but sources said the probe centered on him as a suspect early on.
The officer allegedly struck again on Sept. 24, when he and his partner went to the home of Ruth Zalofsky, 89, and found her dead.
Two days later, an undercover officer, who had been following Saillant because of the initial report by Apler's sister, caught him charging gas at a BP station on Horace Harding Boulevard in Queens to Zalofsky's card.
Officers searched his vehicle and found an NYPD radio that had been missing since January 2003.
Saillant, who has been suspended from the force, declined to comment yesterday.
Richard Acevedo, 42, a close friend of the officer's, said Saillant is a divorced dad of two.
"Eddie's a good-hearted person," Acevedo said. "He tries to help a lot of people, and sometimes helping a lot of people he gets himself in trouble."
www.officer.com/article/article.jsp?siteSection=5&id=32852
JAMIE SCHRAM
Courtesy of The New York Post
An NYPD cop has been busted for allegedly stealing credit cards - from corpses.
Officer Eduardo Saillant, 38, of the 60th Precinct in Brooklyn allegedly took the cards while taking part in investigations of elderly people's deaths, a law-enforcement source said.
He used the cards to charge an undetermined amount of money at gas stations and stores such as Home Depot, the source said. And when he was busted, he was also found with a stolen police radio, cops said.
Saillant was arrested quietly on Tuesday and freed on his own recognizance Wednesday. He was slapped with misdemeanor charges of petit larceny, criminal possession of stolen property and official misconduct and a felony charge of grand larceny in the fourth degree, which could get him up to four years in prison.
The first alleged theft occurred on May 3, when Saillant and his partner responded to a report of a death on Ocean Parkway in Brooklyn. There they found the body of Howard Apler, 63, who died of heart disease.
Saillant allegedly swiped Apler's Visa card and used it to charge items at a Home Depot and for gasoline.
A short time later, the dead man's sister noticed charges being made to the card and, after talking with relatives, alerted police.
It wasn't clear how investigators zeroed in on Saillant, but sources said the probe centered on him as a suspect early on.
The officer allegedly struck again on Sept. 24, when he and his partner went to the home of Ruth Zalofsky, 89, and found her dead.
Two days later, an undercover officer, who had been following Saillant because of the initial report by Apler's sister, caught him charging gas at a BP station on Horace Harding Boulevard in Queens to Zalofsky's card.
Officers searched his vehicle and found an NYPD radio that had been missing since January 2003.
Saillant, who has been suspended from the force, declined to comment yesterday.
Richard Acevedo, 42, a close friend of the officer's, said Saillant is a divorced dad of two.
"Eddie's a good-hearted person," Acevedo said. "He tries to help a lot of people, and sometimes helping a lot of people he gets himself in trouble."
www.officer.com/article/article.jsp?siteSection=5&id=32852