They spent more than $18,000 at local Walmart and Winn Dixie stores on credit cards opened under another person’s name, deputies say. Now, one of them has been arrested, according to the sheriff’s office.
Ronald Christian Jr., 25, is charged with 11 counts of fraudulent use of credit card forgery amounting to more than $100, fraudulent use of personal information over $5,000 and 3rd-degree grand theft.
The Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office says it happened between October 21 and November 13, 2019. Christian and two others, 26-year-old Richard Carter and 21-year-old Derrick Powell Jr. got someone’s personal information and opened two credit card accounts under that person’s name, investigators said.
The three men then went to local Walmart and Winn Dixie stores and bought items amounting to more than $18,000, deputies say.
After getting the fraudulent credit card statements in the mail, the victim filed a fraud report with the sheriff’s office. The person told detectives they saw two men stealing their mail on two separate days.
Detectives say they found surveillance video of the three men at cash registers using the fraudulent cards. Later, detectives were able to identify the three men as Christian, Carter and Powell.
On November 9, the sheriff’s office got an anonymous tip giving them Christian’s location. He was arrested at a home in Brandon and was taken to Orient Road Jail.
Detectives are still looking for Richard Carter and Derrick Powell, Jr. If you have any information on their whereabouts, call the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office at 813.247.8200… News Break
