News, Apb, Santa Monica, Police Department

Santa Monica Woman Arrested After Apple Store Security Suspect Fraud

Posted Mar. 13, 2014, 8:18 am

Tim Broughton / Mirror Contributor

A 35-year-old Santa Monica woman was arrested on Monday, March 3 after trying to rip-off the Apple store on the Third Street Promenade.

Officers of the Santa Monica Police Department went to the Apple store located at 1415 Third Street Promenade at 2:30 pm in order to investigate a possible case of fraud.

Upon arrival the officers spoke with the security agent of the store and he told them what had happened.

Apparently, the suspect had entered the store and immediately requested that she be furnished with a pair of iPhone 5s and one 13” Apple Macbook Pro.

This woman informed the sales associate that she pre-qualified online for an instant store credit of $3,000.

The security agent continued to tell the officers that such instant credits are issued temporarily in a form of a printed barcode that the customer can use until the actual credit card is issued.

The officers learned that the sales associate had asked the suspect for the identification to which the suspect had produced what appeared to be a fraudulent drivers license.

The sales associate had subsequently alerted the security agent of this and the security agent had allowed the suspect to complete the transaction and exit the store.

Once outside the store, the security agent had detained the suspect and summoned the police.

The officers inspected the drivers license in question and determined it to be fake.

The officers further discovered that the suspect had obtained the credit fraudulently by using a medical document that had been discarded by the actual person named on the credit.

This Santa Monica resident was charged with burglary and intent to defraud.

Bail was set at $20,000.

Editor’s Note: These reports are part of a regular police coverage series entitled “Alert Police Blotter” (APB), which injects some minor editorial into certain police activities in Santa Monica. Not all of The Mirror’s coverage of incidents involving police are portrayed in this manner. More serious crimes and police-related activities are regularly reported without editorial in the pages of the Santa Monica Mirror and its website, smmirror.com.