Police: 'International crime ring' targeted gyms to steal credit cards

GREENWICH -- When Greenwich police were alerted to a necklace and a bracelet allegedly purchased on Greenwich Avenue with a stolen credit card earlier this year, it didn't take long to find a lengthy trail left by the accused perpetrator.

Greenwich investigators, working with other law enforcement agencies around the region, quickly determined the fraudulent purchase in Greenwich matched the pattern of what authorities referred to in an affidavit as "a transnational organized crime ring out of Romania," that uses credit cards stolen from gyms and fitness centers.

Alende Olteanu, 30, a Romanian national whose last known address was on 48th Avenue in Woodside, Queens, N.Y., is facing charges in Greenwich of first-degree conspiracy to commit larceny, conspiracy to commit identity theft and conspiracy to commit payment card theft, all of which are felonies. He was also charged this week by Darien police with payment card theft, a felony, and sixth-degree larceny, a misdemeanor.

Greenwich police were contacted by a Rye, N.Y. resident in February after his credit cards were reportedly stolen from the YMCA in Rye, according to the arrest warrant application. One of the credit cards was used to make a purchase of $22,304 at Tiffany's on Greenwich Avenue. An attempt to make a $1,180 purchase on the same day at a cosmetics store on Greenwich Avenue was declined.

A police detective in Rye told Greenwich authorities that the fraudulent activity was consistent with a previous record of credit cards stolen from locker rooms in New Jersey and Pennsylvania.

Olteanu allegedly used a forged North Dakota driver's license to gain a day pass at the YMCA centers where he went into locker rooms.

The Rye man did not lose any money following theft of his bank cards, according to the affidavit, but the Capital One bank took the loss of $22,304.

Police in Limerick, Pa., and Radnor, Pa., had arrested Olteanu on previous occasions for credit card fraud, the court filing stated, and he was also recently picked up in Red Bank, N.J., in March. Police in Maywood, N.J., told Greenwich police that Olteanu had been found with a small piece of metal in a locker room in a fitness center in that town "that he was using to pick locks," according to an affidavit.

Police said Olteanu was identified and linked to the Greenwich case by his physical appearance, tattoos and other investigative techniques, the affidavit stated. Police contacted a British law enforcement agency with high-end facial recognition software at its disposal to help make the case, the affidavit stated.

While he was in Superior Court in Stamford Monday on the Greenwich charges, Olteanu was also charged by Darien police. A local man told Darien police he was working out at the Darien YMCA on March 7. According to the affidavit out of Darien, the alleged victim told police that two credit cards later went missing from his locker and a man fitting Olteanu's description appeared to be hovering around him while he was entering the lock's code, gleaning the numbers.

A stolen card was later used to make a purchase of $11,206 at Saks Fifth Avenue in Greenwich, the court filing stated. YMCA personnel told police a driver's license from North Dakota was used by the suspect to gain a day pass.

Greenwich police went to the the George W. Hill Correctional Facility in Thornton. Pa., where Olteanu was being detained on charges in that state, and brought him to Greenwich on Saturday to face the felony charges.

Bail was set at $50,000, and Olteanu was still in state custody this week. An alleged co-conspirator, another Romanian national, is still at large, according to police.