WAYNE COUNTY — A Pennsylvania woman says a former police officer stole her credit card information after they met on a dating website.
The woman wanted to conceal her identity but didn’t hold back in telling her story because she says she doesn’t want something like this to happen to anyone else.
She says she trusted the man she was dating because he told her he was a police officer, according to WNEP.
It all started with the online dating app Zoosk. The woman from Wayne County received a message from Jerry Kudajeski. He said he was an Avoca police officer interested in getting to know her.
“Actually, he knew people that I knew, and his profession, and we just kind of hit it off on the phone, and it kind of went from there.”
She says within five weeks it was over and her bank account about $2,000 short.
“It was only a few weeks until he was into my information and into the bank account and I didn’t realize it.”
Kudajeski is now behind bars and facing a felony fraud charge for what happened late last month. The woman says Kudajeski called her in a panic. He had run out of gas and asked for the numbers to her Honesdale National Bank debit card.
“I felt bad, that’s the kind of person I am. I felt bad and said, ‘alright.’ and I did something totally against my gut instinct.”
Before she noticed, about $2,000 went missing from her account. Police say Kudajeski used it to pay bills for his family.
It turns out he’s married and the woman suspects the only thing remotely truthful Kudajeski told her was about his job.
He previously served as an Avoca police sergeant in 2014 but the chief of the department says Kudajeski resigned almost three years ago.
“There’s a menagerie of things that I missed.”
The woman would work with police to arrest Kudajeski. She asked to meet him Tuesday evening in Carbondale. She spotted him at a Turkey Hill in town where police put him in cuffs.
The woman says watching it all, she felt sorry for her former boyfriend and embarrassed about being made a victim, but, she doesn’t want this to happen to anyone else.
“Pay very close attention to your instincts, and do a little investigating, deep investigation, before you start to see someone.”
Kudajeski is locked up in the Wayne County Prison, unable to post bail.
The woman we talked to hopes the arrest gets him some help.
