Cops Bust Alleged Chop Shop

A police investigation that spanned Pennsylvania and New Jersey has ended with the arrest of the owner of an auto parts store that sits on the border of Falls Township and Morrisville.

Neal Sanford Lubow, 69, of Middletown, was charged Friday with owning or operating a chop shop, transfers vehicles from a chop shop and receiving stolen property. He was arraigned late Friday afternoon and released on $100,000 unsecured bail.

Lubow allegedly ran a chop shop that sold parts from dozens of vehicles stolen from New Jersey, which is just a hop, skip and a jump away from his shop, South End Auto Parts on West Bridge Street.

Falls police said they were tipped off last June when a Trenton detective called to inform that “he received information from a source that these stolen vehicles, which were in excess of forty over the last several weeks, were being transported to a Pennsylvania auto yard, which was just over the bridge in the Morrisville, Pennsylvania area,” according to an affidavit of probable cause.

A few days later, Morrisville and Falls officers were drawn to the yard after a Lojack signal was recorded coming from the area of South End Auto Parts. The stolen vehicle tracking device led officers to the 2005 Toyota. The vehicle appeared to have parts including the battery missing, police said.

The vehicle, which had a “6” written on the windshield, was discovered to be stolen from Ewing, New Jersey hours before its discovery, police said.

Lubow spoke with investigating officers and reportedly said “he was not aware of the vehicle’s presence as another business … uses his lot for their business.”

Police discovered stolen vehicles at the lot two more times last summer, court papers show.

Several Falls detectives ended up executing a search warrant on the business on August 7. The warrant was served after an officer found a stolen car. The lawman locked down the yard and office in anticipation of the search warrant.

During a later interview with police, Lubow said he bought “numerous” cars at $200 per vehicle from Ramon Reimer, 38, of Trenton, who first showed up at his auto parts store in spring, court papers said.

From the affidavit of probable cause:

A review of Lubow’s Wells Fargo check ledger revealed that spanning Monday, June 8, 2015, to Friday, August 7, 2015, Lubow purchased fifty-four cars from Reimer on twenty-four separate occasions for a total of ten thousand, eight hundred dollars. Lubow advised that upon receiving the cars from Reimer he would remove the vehicle’s alternator, condenser, catalytic converter, radiator, tires and rims after which he stacked the vehicles in the yard.

When a large amount of stolen vehicles built up at the car yard, they were purchased by a Falls metal scrapping company, police said.

Reimer reportedly admitted to police that he sold cars to Lubow.

Reimer was arrested in October by Trenton cops and charged with 73 counts of theft, one for each of the cars he stole and subsequently sold to Lubow, police said.

Lubow is scheduled to have a preliminary hearing before District Judge Jan Vislosky on February 16.

Editor’s Note: All individuals arrested or charged with a crime are presumed innocent until proven guilty. The story was compiled using information from police and public court documents.