Man Stole $200 with 'Sleight of Hand,' Police Say

A city man with a “lengthy criminal history” used some “sleight of hand” on a cashier at the Linden Street Walmart in February that allowed him to walk out with almost $200 more than when he came in, court records say.

Alfredo Cancel-Maisonet, 33, reappeared on Bethlehem Township police’s radar screen Monday afternoon on the 4900 block of Freemansburg Avenue. And before the day was over, he would be in Northampton County Prison.

Cancel-Maisonet had been stopped by police from Pohatcong Township, N.J., who were pursuing him as a retail theft suspect.

According to the complaint:

• Cancel-Maisonet, of 1059 Livingston St. in Marvine-Pembroke, was in Walmart around 10 a.m. Feb. 23. He asked a cashier if he could give her five $20 bills in exchange for a $100 bill.
• The cashier complied and handed him a $100 bill. But he never gave the cashier the five $20 bills. He placed them in his pocket along with the $100 bill.
• He then produced a $10 bill and told the cashier she gave him a $10 bill instead of a $100 bill. He then demanded that she give him back his five $20 bills—and she complied.
• “Surveillance footage later that evening reveals the swindle,” wrote Patrolman Edward Fox III in the complaint.

Fox’s complaint also says Cancel-Maisonet has a “lengthy criminal history, which includes bail jumping and numerous theft offenses.”

He is also the subject of a “non-extraditable warrant” out of the Naples, Fla., sheriff’s office for fraud, the complaint says. Naples is on Florida’s Gulf coast.

The complaint also says Cancel-Maisonet will be charged by Pohatcong police in connection with two retail thefts. In the Walmart case, he was charged with theft by deception, receiving stolen property and possessing instruments of crime.

He was arraigned Monday night by on-duty District Judge Jackie Taschner of Palmer Township and committed to county prison in lieu of $15,000 bail.

Cancel-Maisonet’s photo had appeared on Bethlehem Township police’s Facebook page in connection with the February incident at Walmart. 
When Fox showed Cancel-Maisonet a photo of himself from the Facebook page, Cancel-Maisonet told the officer, “Yeah, that’s me.”

Meanwhile, when Pohatcong police searched him during the Freemansburg Avenue stop, they found a device “used solely for the deactivation of store security anti-theft tags,” according to a criminal complaint filed by Fox.

The device apparently played no role in the Walmart incident.