A 53-year-old resident of Highland, California was arrested Thursday, May 23 for trying to open a line of credit at Bloomingdale’s using stolen identification cards.
At 7 pm officers of the Santa Monica Police Department went to the department store, located at 315 Colorado Avenue after a report of fraud had been called in.
When the officers arrived they immediately met with the loss prevention agents who told them what had happened.
Apparently, a man had entered the store and had inquired with a sales associate about opening an account.
The associate had recognized this man as an individual with whom the store had experienced prior negative encounters, and had, as a result of this identification, summoned the loss prevention agents.
They had then allowed the man to open the line of credit, and while he was utilizing it to make a purchase of goods (with a value in excess of $800), they contacted the person whose name the suspect had used on the credit application.
They told this person that this man was using their name, they believed fraudulently, in order to open a line of credit (identity theft, if you will), and the person confirmed that authorization to do so had not been granted.
The officers searched the suspect and discovered that he had two drivers’ licenses with different names, and a JC Penney card.
It was this JC Penney card that the suspect had attempted to use as identification in order to open the Bloomindale’s credit line.
The officers arrested this man and charged him with burglary, forgery, and obtaining credit with another person’s identification, in addition to a no-bail warrant.
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.
