Southampton business owner charged in alleged Aruba trip cancellation scheme

Ronald Fisher, a 42-year-old Southampton business owner, was arrested after Suffolk County police said he posed as his former business partner and called a travel agency to cancel an Aruba vacation just hours before departure. Police said Fisher, of 41 Hilltop Road, turned himself in at the Seventh Precinct and was charged with identity theft in the first degree.

The alleged disruption landed at one of the busiest points in the travel day. Police said the victim, a Moriches man, had already arrived at JFK International Airport on March 22, 2025, when he learned his trip had been canceled without his knowledge. Investigators said the cancellation came about three hours before takeoff, and the trip carried a reported loss of $4,202.

The accusation gives the case a sharper edge than a routine fraud arrest. Suffolk County police said Fisher allegedly used the victim’s personal information by phone to interfere with a trip tied to a former business relationship, turning a private dispute into a criminal identity-theft case. Fisher was scheduled to be arraigned on May 7, 2026, in First District Court in Central Islip.

Police have said identity theft often involves people with close access to the victim, including family members or friends, and that the harm can hit harder than the dollars alone suggest. Suffolk County police also say the emotional impact of identity theft can be similar to the damage suffered by victims of violent crime. In this case, the alleged target was not a credit card account or an online login, but a vacation plan already in motion, with a traveler standing at JFK and a flight to Aruba about to leave without him. For Suffolk County, the complaint places a familiar local business name, a South Fork address and a deeply personal fallout at the center of a case that now sits squarely in criminal court.