NAUGATUCK — A man who used credit cards stolen from around the world to buy a range of items — from hunting gear to a motorcycle frame — in the past two years was recently thwarted by a pizza delivery driver, according to police in two towns.
John Chacho Jr., 22, was served with an arrest warrant Tuesday charging him with illegal use of a credit card after borough police investigated the claims of a Domino’s driver who arrived at Chacho’s door in late September.
A 30-year-old woman met the driver and tried to sign a credit card slip for a pizza she had ordered over the phone, but the driver wanted to see the card she used, according to police.
When she told the driver the card had expired and she threw it out, the driver called police. Police were later told Chacho was dating the woman. When an officer arrived at her North Main Street home, she admitted that she and Chacho had gotten the card number off the “internet” and had “probably” done the same thing in the past, according to police.
Receipts showed the woman had bought pizza using the stolen card on two other occasions, tipping the driver less than 10 percent each time, according to police.
Chacho was charged with multiple counts of larceny and other charges. It isn’t the first time police have investigated him for identity-theft related crimes.
In cases that span two years, police have accused Chacho of using stolen credit card information to buy a range of items, including a mini-bike frame from Florida and a hunting bow and a deer blind from Pennsylvania. Police found stolen cards were used to buy hundreds of dollars in items that were shipped to Chacho.
Some of those items were ordered online using cards stolen from around the world, including South Africa, Italy and India, Watertown police learned.
Chacho is suspected of trying to push through more than 50 transactions at one store alone using several different card numbers, police learned. It’s unclear how the credit card information was obtained, but unscrupulous websites sell the stolen information in large batches to buyers.
Chacho denied he bought the items, saying he was jailed at the time the purchases were made, but police later learned they were made after he was released.
Chacho is being held on a $75,000 bond and is due in Waterbury Superior Court later this month.
