Police: 'Thelma & Louise'-Style Joyride Stretched From Illinois To Colorado
PARKER, Colo. (CBS4) - Police in Parker on Saturday arrested one of two women who they say embarked on an identity theft crime spree.
A number of those thefts were residents in a West Denver neighborhood located between the Highlands and Sloan's Lake.
Police wouldn't elaborate on how many victims we're targeted but they said the women involved started with mail theft and then moved on to stealing vehicles.
Parker police say they arrested Amber Garcia, 22, after she was seen tailgating a known stolen Dodge truck.
"They spotted the Dodge. They continued to follow it. There noticed that there was a Ford Expedition that was following very closely and there was a short pursuit and as a result the Ford ended up crashing into a parked car," said Parker police spokeswoman Sherry Corcoran.
Garcia was caught in another stolen vehicle littered with mail and personal information from her victims. The two women in those two stolen vehicles may have been working together.
The second woman with the stolen Dodge truck wasn't located but the truck was recovered two and a half hours after the chase. It had been abandoned in Aurora.
"We do believe that we know the identity of the suspect but we're not releasing that information at this time," said.
The pair was allegedly stealing information from loose mail, financial documents, credit cards and medical prescriptions. Investigators also found vehicle registrations, indicating the women were breaking into cars across the metro area.
Identities were stolen from victims in nine Colorado cities including Greeley, Denver, Colorado Springs and Alamosa. They were also apparently crossing state lines because they allegedly had credit card information from victims in Kansas, Illinois and Iowa.
Parker police wouldn't say on Saturday night if they were close to making an arrest of the second identity theft suspect.
Police say this is a critical time for identity theft. Companies are sending w-2 forms to employees, which contain personal information and they are a prime target for thieves.
