Identity theft victim recalls night in jail

Michael Baird arrested on warrant for man who stole his ID.

y TOM QUIGLEY
The Express-Times

FLEMINGTON | Michael Henry Baird can now add a new item to the list of outrageous incidents he's endured since the 2005 theft of his identity -- his first time in jail.

The Upper Mount Bethel Township resident said he's also looking for a good lawyer.

A Florida arrest warrant for a man who used Baird's identity led to the 29-year-old Baird's arrest by a Clinton Township police officer Monday.

"I explained to the officer on the scene what happened to me with the identity theft," Baird said. "Several more officers were called for backup."

He said the arresting officer checked and found the warrant.

The officer "asked me to step out of the vehicle, put my hands on the back of the truck and spread my legs."

Police then frisked him, transported him to headquarters and to the Hunterdon County Jail.

Corrections officers took his money, handcuffed him to a bench and left him there for about 30 minutes during a shift change.

Baird -- owner of a welding business -- said he then spoke to an intake officer.

After that, "I was escorted to a small closet by a corrections officer and told to strip."

hen, dressed in a jumpsuit and slippers, he received a bag with two blankets and a plastic spork.

"They took me to D Block," he said. "I pretty much went straight to my cell, No. 93. It was late and I was afraid of mixing with the other inmates so I figured I should just go and hide out."

Baird said he couldn't sleep in part because he didn't have a mattress.

"I felt like it was one of those bad dreams, like being in an insane asylum," he said.

A sergeant at the jail spent most of the day Tuesday checking out Baird's story, fielding phone call after phone call.

Hunterdon County Corrections Administrator Scott Nodes finally made the decision Baird was free to go. He was then released from the jail at 5 p.m. and sat outside waiting for his father to arrive.

A check with the Volusia County Sheriff's Office in Florida on Wednesday afternoon showed the warrant for Baird's arrest remains active.

"They're the rudest people we've ever dealt with," Baird said of the Volusia sheriff's office. Authorities have already amended arrest warrants in Georgia, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, New York and California after learning of the identity theft.

But Baird remains charged by the Daytona Beach Police Department with forgery.

Georgia authorities have charged Sean Vincent Zarate, a Northampton County native and former friend of Baird's, with stealing Baird's identity.

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