NEW YORK (1010 WINS) – A New Jersey man who allegedly called in thousands of dollars' worth of fake food orders to restaurants has been arrested, police said Wednesday.
Sudeep Khetani, of Kendall Park in South Brunswick Township, was charged with cyber harassment Tuesday, more than four months after authorities said they were charging him with theft as they continued their search for him in connection with the scam orders.
Police allege the 34-year-old used fake phone numbers to place several hundred calls to pizzerias and restaurants in New Jersey between Jan. 15 and April 9, with no intention of paying for or picking up the food. The businesses reported several thousand dollars in losses.
Police said Khetani targeted five pizzerias in South Brunswick. Pizzerias and restaurants in Montgomery, Plainsboro and West Windsor also got the bogus calls.
Khetani "used harassing, threatening, sexually explicit, and biased comments against employees who answered the phone," police said. When some pizzerias made follow-up calls to him, he allegedly "would make statements about Italians and wished they would be afflicted with the coronavirus."
"It is incomprehensible that a suspect would play on the goodwill of so many during these difficult times," said South Brunswick Police Chief Raymond Hayducka back in April, adding "this suspect has gone to a new low."
Hayducka said a South Brunswick detective was able to track down Khetani after filing subpoenas and conducting interviews.
It appears Khetani was nabbed in Florida, where police had been searching for him and where he was on probation for selling fake Disney World tickets. He was taken to the Middlesex County Jail in North Brunswick Township pending his first court appearance.
Khetani also faces a charge of promoting prostitution stemming from an unrelated 2019 incident, police said.
