How Bernanke’s ID thieves did it

Shonya Michelle Young (Credit: U.S. Marshal Service)
Shonya Michelle Young (Credit: U.S. Marshal Service)

Anna Bernanke hung her purse on the back of a chair at Starbucks. It was stolen and, soon after, she and Ben became victims of identity theft.

It’s extremely simple to steal a purse that isn’t attached to a person. It could be on the back of a chair, on an empty chair, or on the floor. Bob’s done it many times for television news shows. Yep, even in busy coffee shops and mall food courts, where you’d think a few people would notice. It has to do with how you drape a coat over the purse.

In her handbag, Anna carried what thieves call a spread: credit card, identification, checks, and her Social Security card (shame on her!). This is the jackpot for a pickpocket and identity theft ring.

Not all pickpockets know how to exploit checks and credit cards. But by now they know at least to sell them. In the old days, some thieves would actually bother to drop them in a mailbox.

Some pickpockets have their own ID theft specialists on staff or on call. When they snag a bag containing a spread, they want to cash a hefty check or two, and they want a fat cash advance on the credit card. They could just buy murch—stuff at a store—but then they’d get just a fraction of its value from a fence. A cash advance is the best, especially in cities with casinos. The thieves can request several advances simultaneously, at different casinos. Each will be approved because none has actually been granted yet. A thief can easily make about $60,000 in an hour with just one credit card.

I wrote of this in a forum a few years ago, and someone asked:

How can they get a cash advance without showing an ID matching their face to the name on the card? Whenever I’m in Vegas I get asked for ID when using credit cards even for a 5.00 purchase.

That’s where the pickpocket’s staff comes in. These thieves have a covey of accomplices on standby. “A blonde, a brunette, an Asian, an older woman with gray hair, and a heavy-set,” a practitioner of this business told me. They call them look-alikes. When the pickpocket gets a check or credit card with ID, he phones the accomplice who looks most like the victim (and that doesn’t have to be much!). The accomplice practices the victim’s signature a time or two, then goes to collect the cash advance (which the thief applied for at a machine.) At this point, the accomplice is referred to as a writer. She writes the check or signs for the cash advance. The harried teller or cashier takes a quick glance, sees a vague resemblance (maybe thinks: oh, honey, you’re having a bad day), and doles out the cash under pressure to serve the next person in line.

The suddenly-infamous George Lee Reid was [allegedly] the identity theft ring’s writer of one of Bernanke’s checks, at a bank in Maryland. The ring’s main writer, Shonya Michelle Young (pictured above), has just been captured. In her possession, she had fake ID, credit cards in the name of others, and “wigs worn while cashing fraudulent checks.”

More on look-alikes later.

Reminder to women: don’t hang your purse on the back of your chair. Don’t put it on the floor unless you put your foot through the strap. Reminder to men: valuables in your coat pockets are vulnerable if you hang the coat on the back of a chair.
© Copyright 2008-2009 Bambi Vincent. All rights reserved.

Tags from the story
, , ,
More from Bambi Vincent
Eat shit
Mala Mala, South Africa— Our mischievous rangers convinced some in our safari...
Read More
Join the Conversation

3 Comments

Leave a comment

Your email address will not be published.

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

  1. says: Drew

    Thanks for your blog – I’m researching stuff for a novel, and your posts are really informative. I’m also learning a lot about crime prevention for myself and family!

    My bag routine – learnt after being ripped off in Spain – wherever I am, is to put my bag between my feet on the floor.

    Hey, if I feel edgy about where I am, I also thread a strap through the seat I’m in too.

    Take care!

  2. says: jphripjah

    Yes, about 20 years ago when I was a college student I hung my coat on the back of my chair at a Paris McDonald’s. As I was eating, I felt a slight movement, and my friend sitting across from me at the table noticed that the guy at the table behind me reached into my coat.

    My friend yelled and the guy turned over what he had gotten from my inside and outer coat pocket– eurail pass, credit card, and a lot of maps.

    So you’re right — don’t put your coat on the back of your chair, and beware of local dudes sitting near you in foreign McDonald’s who don’t seem to be eating anything.