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And now, 46-year-old Ralph Maldonado, owner of a business where the woman had once paid for vehicle maintenance, has been charged with unauthorized use of the woman's credit card.
Police charge that Maldonado, using the Elizabethtown resident's card, unlawfully bought more than $6,000 in items from Gochnauer's Home Appliance Center, 5939 Main St., East Petersburg.
The victim had used her credit card at Ralph's Auto Sales in Lancaster, police reported. The business address was not listed by police or in newspaper files.
After the woman reported misuse of her card, police found that Maldonado was the owner of the auto business.
Elizabethtown Borough police charged Maldonado, who was already in Lancaster County Prison on other charges, with one count of access device fraud and one count of criminal conspiracy. Both charges are felonies.
Maldonado, of Caroline Street, was arrested in May after a traffic stop. Police found 100 grams of heroin and cocaine in his vehicle as he was leaving the Pennsylvania Turnpike at the Route 222 exit in East Cocalico Township.
Police said the heroin was worth $15,000 and the powder cocaine was valued at $500.
Police also seized Maldonado's 2004 Nissan Pathfinder during the arrest.
In November 2007, Maldonado was arrested and charged with attempted theft by deception after Manheim Township police said he tried to return a laptop computer to the Walmart on Fruitville Pike.
Police at the time said they did not know where the computer came from.
E-mail: doconnor@lnpnews.com
