A 32-year-old Pine Brook man charged with stealing packages from several township doorsteps in the days before Christmas may have planned to use a cookie sale as a cover if the thefts were interrupted, police said.

Police received two reports of packages that were taken from doorsteps on Dec. 21, including from a Kanouse Lane resident who had surveillance footage of the incident.

The video showed a man returning a ripped open package with a children's book and also leaving behind a bag with a box of cookies.

Police say they recognized the man in the video as Pine Brook resident Salvatore Mennella.

Mennella was charged on Dec. 23 with receiving stolen property after he was pulled over by a Montville police officer around 5 p.m. near Lazar Middle School with about $6,000 of allegedly stolen items in his car, police Capt. Edward Rosellini said.

In the following weeks, Mennella was charged with three thefts after township residents reported stolen packages and the missing items allegedly were found among those in Mennella's possession, police said.

Three residents reported stolen packages that haven't been recovered.

In the Kanouse Lane incident, the residents reviewed the surveillance footage because they were puzzled when they came home and found a ripped open package on their doorstep and a Wawa shopping bag with cookies inside.

The video shows the man identified by police as Mennella taking a package from the doorstep and leaving. After realizing only a children's book is inside, he returns the package and the book, and also leaves the bag of cookies, homeowner John Chirico said.

Mennella was pulled over on Dec. 23 after an officer saw Mennella at a gas station and noticed packages in Mennella's car.

Mennella was charged with stealing packages from homes on Adams Way, Navajo Court and Morris Avenue, police said. Police said they still have items that are believed to have been stolen and have not yet been claimed.