Police on Thursday morning arrested a 34-year-old New York City man in connection with the use of a New Canaan resident’s identity earlier this year to open numerous credit card accounts.
Sinke Merim Zewge. Photo courtesy of the New Canaan Police Department
Sinke Merim Zewge of 317 Bowery was charged with second-degree forgery and second-degree identity theft, both Class D felonies.
At about 8 a.m. on Jan. 7, police received a complaint about numerous credit card accounts that had been opened in the name of a town resident, officials said.
Authorities launched an investigation and then, as per a report from police in Amherst, Mass., identified Zewge as a suspect after he got involved in a car accident while driving a U-Haul truck, officials said.
Inside the truck, investigators found multiple fraudulent IDs, including one that was connected to the victim from New Canaan, according to a police report.
From there, detectives connected Zewge to multiple fraudulent credit cards and purchases made from the victim in New Canaan, the report said.
Police obtained an extraditable warrant and found him at the Clinton Correctional Facility in Dannemora, N.Y., it said. He’s serving a sentence there for unknown charges out of New York State, police said.
Police took custody of Zewge after he was transferred to Sing Sing Prison in Ossining, N.Y.
They arrested him by warrant around 10:36 a.m. on March 30. He is scheduled to appear Friday in state Superior Court in Norwalk.