Fairview Man Allegedly Offered Kids $5 Twice, Charged With Harrassment

Fort Lee police charged a Fairview man Friday with two counts of harassment after he allegedly offered two children on their way to School No. 1 $5 and then a ride in his car Wednesday morning near the intersection of Anderson Ave. and North Ave., and then allegedly approached a different child with the same offer the very next day in the same area.

Police said in both cases the kids refused the money and reported the incidents to school officials who alerted the police.

Fort Lee Police Officer Glenn Iafrate located Luis Caulderon, 21, just down Anderson Ave. from where the incidents allegedly occurred and took him into custody just minutes after the second incident was reported Thursday. The police department was conducting surveillance of the area Thursday morning in light of Wednesday’s incident, according to police.

Caulderon was taken to the Fort Lee Police Department for further questioning and subsequently admitted offering the children money, police said.

“Due to the alarm Calderon caused, he was charged with two counts of harassment,” according to a police department press release.

Fort Lee Police Chief Thomas Ripoli told Patch the harassment charge is essentially a “disorderly person charge,” and that police didn’t have enough to go on to charge Caulderon with a more serious crime.

“There’s elements of every crime, and if we don’t have each of those elements, we can’t prove what we think he may have wanted to do or could have tried to do,” explained Capt. Keith Bendul of the Fort Lee Police Department. “We just have to go by the actual acts that he commits and the actions that he takes, and harassment was the appropriate charge.”