Woman accused of identity theft in Colorado Springs

A 26-year-old woman who is suspected of identity theft in Colorado Springs was recently arrested.

Police obtained an arrest warrant which also charged her with theft, forgery, and attempting to influence a public official. They say that she assumed a local woman’s identity earlier this summer in June, taking advantage of identification for the woman which was contained in her stolen car.

Police claim that she used the woman’s IDs to create bogus charge accounts in her name at a number of stores, subsequently charging merchandise valued at thousands of dollars. They further assert that she visited banks in the area, opening two accounts in the name of her assumed identity, and three in another name, depositing checks from one account into another to create the illusion of a higher balance in some of the accounts, and then withdrawing money before the checks deposited bounced. She also, according to investigators, wrote bad checks at a number of stores.

Police investigators are still attempting to determine the total they believe was stolen through the identity theft. They state that they have seized furniture said to be worth $3,000 at retail which was purportedly purchased using the assumed identity.

In an unrelated case, Colorado Springs police arrested a male suspect they stated was involved in the burglary of an evacuated home, entering it during a fire in Waldo Canyon. They claimed to have recovered property taken from the home during a search of the suspect’s apartment. The investigation is ongoing, and police said that they believed that additional people may have been involved in the burglary.

Statistics released by the police indicated that there may have been 42 home burglaries and 43 vehicle burglaries during the evacuation accompanying the Waldo Canyon fire which started June 23. The fire was not entirely extinguished until July 4.

Our law firm handles cases similar to the ones described here. For more information, go to our Colorado Springs white collar crime page.

Source: Fox 21 News, “Identity theft suspect arrested in Arizona,” Aug. 28, 2012