Two New York men believed to be responsible for buying Apple Store goods fraudulently to the tune of $90,000 were arrested in Santa Monica on Saturday, July 18.
Officers went to The Apple Store, located in the 1400 block of Third Street Promenade, at 2:30 pm in order to investigate a report of fraudulent credit card purchases.
When the officers arrived they spoke with loss prevention agents at the store who told them that two suspects had been making very large purchases with fraudulent credit cards.
They said that one of the suspects had made a purchase of $7,000 worth of Apple products and had left the store while the other suspect was in the process of attempting to make a second purchase.
The agents added that at that time a loss prevention agent had recognized the suspects as being individuals who were wanted in regard to ongoing fraud activity that had been taking place within the previous two days at other area Apple Stores.
The total estimate of goods obtained by fraud was said to have been in the region of $90,000. The agent then pointed out the suspect who was outside the store to officers while other officers detained the second suspect inside the store.
The officers then searched the suspects and discovered that they possessed fraudulent driver’s licenses and other fraudulent identification cards. The first suspect was arrested and charged with burglary, fraud, false impersonation, shoplifting, and grand theft. This 27-year-old resident of New York was also found to have an extradition warrant.
The second suspect, aged 25, and also of New York, was charged with fraud, false impersonation, burglary, grand theft and shoplifting.
Bail for this suspect was set at $1,000,000 while bail was not granted for the first suspect.
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.
