NEW YORK (AP) – With his roommate still unconscious from a car crash that would cost him his leg, Anthony Giordano told police he was the injured man’s brother and then snagged his wallet – launching a $22,000 spending spree, police said.

The former Long Island resident was extradited to New York from South Carolina on Friday, according to the Suffolk County Police Department. He was facing charges of identity theft and grand larceny.

Authorities said Giordano, 47, was already lying to his roommate at the time of the crash – telling Geoffrey MacMurdo he was a Sept. 11 victim and New York firefighter. When MacMurdo was involved in the crash in June 2005, Giordano claimed his belongings from officers, police said.

Giordano made more than $22,000 in charges on his roommate’s credit cards and on new cards he took out in MacMurdo’s name, police said. He used the cards at a strip club and to buy a 15-year-old jeep, police said.

After the crash, he continued to live with MacMurdo, moving out without warning in May 2006, and eventually moving to South Carolina, where he was arrested. It was only after he moved that his roommate began to suspect him.

Suffolk County police said they had no information on Giordano’s recent address or on whether he had a lawyer.

AP-ES-06-29-07 2334EDT