POLICE BLOTTER

By:
   Eliezer Lopez-Ortiz, 21, of Philadelphia, was charged with exhibiting a fake driver’s license after an officer stopped him for driving with an obstructed view on Gemini Drive at 5:09 p.m. Sept. 30.
   The officer observed a small bear hanging from the rearview mirror and stopped the vehicle near the intersection of Gemini Drive and Capricorn Drive.
   Police said Mr. Lopez-Ortiz displayed a driver’s license from the Federal District of Mexico that appeared to have been made using a photocopier and a typewriter. The officer also noticed that the driver’s license didn’t have a hologram.
   Mr. Lopez-Ortiz was transported to the station and told police that he had bought the license – which he believed to be authentic – for 60 pesos in Mexico because he needed to drive for his job.
   Mr. Lopez-Ortiz was charged with third-degree exhibiting a simulated driver’s license and was lodged in the Somerset County Jail on $10,000 bail with a 10 percent option. He was also charged with driving with an obstructed view and being an unlicensed driver.
   Mr. Lopez-Ortiz was released the same day after he posted $1,000 bail and produced a valid Mexican birth certificate — a condition of his release.
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   Zansitis Painting on Stryker Lane reported a 1996 red Ford pickup truck, valued at $10,000, stolen on Oct. 1.
   Police said the owner had parked it in the side lot at 2 p.m. Sept. 30 and returned the next afternoon to find it missing.
   The truck had a Jasper transmission, a snowplow on the front, and a steel toolbox in the truck bed. The truck also had decals on the sides that read: "Zansitis Painting 359-5426."
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   A resident of Brookside Lane reported her son’s mountain bike stolen on Sept. 30.
   The resident said her son had left the $175 silver men’s mountain bike outside in front of the house at 1 p.m. and returned to find it missing at 3 p.m.
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   Windows on the Western International Gas and Cylinders Inc. building on Homestead Road were broken and the interior walls spray painted when someone broke into the building in August.
   The company’s CEO, based in Texas, reported the damage after inspecting the unused building on Oct. 3.
   The cost to repair the damage was estimated at $15,000.
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   A Mount Laurel resident reported that his car was broken into between 11:30 p.m. Sept. 23, when he parked it at a friend’s residence on Manor Drive, and 3 p.m. Sept. 24 when he returned to the vehicle.
   When the driver returned to the vehicle, he noticed his Marlboro Menthol Light cigarettes were missing, as well as his iPod road trip adapter, cigarette outlet splitter, and Axion portable DVD player were all missing.
   The total value of the items stolen was $218.