Cooperation between the Wayland and Glendale, Ariz., police departments, along with the tenacity of a local citizen referred to as “H,” resulted in the felony arrest of a 19-year-old “techie” for credit card fraud.Wayland Chief Mark Garnsey said the local department got a call from “H” about stolen credit card information. Lake Michigan Credit Union sent a text to “H,” asking if a $1,002 charge was authorized for a grocery store pickup order in Glendale, Ariz. H said it was not an authorized charge.
“Our complainant called us to tell us that the credit union was going to make sure H’s account wasn’t charged, but H felt compelled to try and help catch the crook,” Garnsey said. “H said the grocery store in Glendale sent an e-mail which stated the order was to be picked up between 8 and 9 a.m. in Glendale, which is three hours behind Eastern time.
“We called the Glendale Police Dispatch and relayed the information. Within minutes, a GPD officer called us back and we filled him in on all of the details in order to pickup the crook(s) if they tried to pickup the order that was purchased with the stolen card number.
“GPD was very short staffed, with only four out of a normal eight officers working their northern district. Despite that, three officers setup surveillance after communicating a plan with the grocery store manager.
“About 45 minutes later, a second GPD officer called us and advised the suspect was in custody, and because patrol was short, a detective sergeant was sending two detectives from the Financial Crimes Unit to take over the case and the arrest. The detectives wrote a search warrant for the vehicle and retrieved the stolen property.”
Garnsey said the suspect confessed to all crimes, and divulged how he obtained the credit card number.
The suspect was charged with a Class 2 felony for fraud schemes and artifices —punishable by 12.5 years in prison, and trafficking stolen property, a Class 5 felony punishable by 2.5 years in prison. The order consisted of Nintendo Switch consoles for $897. The thief also bought groceries to bring the total to $1,002.
“Further, just to be kind, the thief agreed to round the purchase up by 77 cents to donate to the American Red Cross,” the Wayland chief said. “How thoughtful. The ironic part of this is that by exceeding $1,000 by a whole $2, it pushed this case into felony territory. Had the thief merely left off the 16 oz. of unsalted butter at $2.98, this would have been a misdemeanor.”
According to one of the detectives, this was a case of a 19-year-old who was a “techie” and didn’t think he’d be caught.
“However, we may never know how many thousands of dollars he actually has defrauded people and financial institutions out of,” Garnsey said. “The Wayland Police Department thanks our citizen, “H,” and the Glendale AZ police patrol officers, detectives, and the D/Sgt that coordinated this case on the Arizona end.”
