Police and fire briefs for Oct. 24, 2012

Authorities search for identity thief

East Baton Rouge Parish sheriff’s detectives are looking for a woman accused of using another person’s identity to purchase gift cards at a department store on North Mall Drive on July 17, a sheriff’s spokeswoman said.

The woman bought several Best Buy gift cards at Kohl’s, 10774 N. Mall Drive, using a store account in the victim’s name, Casey Rayborn Hicks said in a news release.

The woman left Kohl’s and went to the Best Buy on Bluebonnet Boulevard and redeemed the gift cards by buying Visa reloadable debit cards for $618, Hicks said.

Detectives have exhausted all other avenues in their investigation and are seeking the public’s help, Hicks said.

The woman is described as a white female wearing a white shirt and black shorts.

Anyone with information about this incident or the identity of the woman is asked to call the Sheriff’s Office at [phone] or Crime Stoppers at (225) 344-STOP or [phone].

Men on surveillance video steal two TVs

East Baton Rouge Parish sheriff’s detectives are looking for two men who burglarized a Coursey Boulevard store on Friday, a sheriff’s spokeswoman said.

The two men entered the Shoppers Choice at 10920 Coursey Blvd. about 9:30 p.m., Casey Rayborn Hicks said in a news release.

The men were seen in surveillance footage climbing over the fence of the store’s patio and taking two 46-inch Sony flat-screen televisions, Hicks said.

The men were seen wearing gray and black hooded sweatshirts, Hicks said.

Anyone with information about this incident or the identity of the men is asked to call the Sheriff’s Office at [phone] or Crime Stoppers at [phone].

Two arrested on suspicion of DWI

Authorities arrested at least two people suspected of driving while intoxicated in East Baton Rouge Parish and booked them into Parish Prison between 2:30 p.m. Monday and 2:30 p.m. Tuesday, prison booking records show.

• Harold Herbert, 51, 8945 Airline Highway, Baton Rouge, first-offense DWI, driving too slow, reckless operation of a vehicle and speeding.
• Belinda Falcon, 19, 10615 Airline Highway, Baton Rouge, first-offense DWI, driving left of center, disobeying a red light and disobeying a control device.

Compiled from staff reports

Comments

1) Comment by foldgers - 24/10/2012

The easiest way to lower it is for the credit card companies to ALLOW merchants to check ID for every transaction. According to the agreements, merchants are not supposed to check for ID when people use a credit card. And the easiest way to do this is gas pumps. It is really insane that the card companies pretty much encourage fraud while forcing the rest of us to cover all of their losses from fraud with stupid fees and higher rates. To write a check, you need ID, phone number, address and other items for identification, but to use a debit card to access that exact same checking account, just swipe away. If stores would check for ID, many people would stop stealing wallets and purses right away.

2) Comment by tradewinns - 24/10/2012

id theft needs to be treated extremely harshly. the inconvience of the victim alone should call for a 10 year prison term w/o any chance of parole for the criminal. the only way to stop this type of crime is swift, sure, long term punishment. i know that in our failed "justice" system that will never happen so we need to change our justice system first.