Just days before the Fourth of July, a fireworks fraud scheme fizzled out when the suspect walked back into the same Hialeah store he’d allegedly ripped off, police said.
Santiago Prieto, 20, was arrested Monday on an organized scheme to defraud charge, an arrest report said.
According to the report, the owner of Samurai Fireworks on West 62nd Street said earlier in the month a man had picked up multiple orders of fireworks that were later found to have been purchased with fraudulent credit cards.
On Monday, an employee of Samauri Fireworks said Prieto stepped into the store and he recognized him as the man who had picked up the previous orders, the report said.
When the same payment card was flagged for an additional online order, the employee immediately contacted law enforcement and officers responded to take Prieto into custody, the report said.
The store reported a total financial loss of $2,277.60 from Prieto’s actions.
Prieto was arrested and booked into jail and later bonded out.