THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, August 3, 1996 TAG: 9608030308
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JOHN-HENRY DOUCETTE, CORRESPONDENT
DATELINE: CHESAPEAKE LENGTH: 32 lines
Police made an arrest Friday in connection with a recent series of crimes in which a thief preyed on real estate agents who left their purses unattended in her presence.
Jacqueline L. Smith, 36, whose last known address is in the 200 block of Harrier St. in Virginia Beach, has been charged with two felonies and a misdemeanor, according to public information officer Elizabeth Jones of the Chesapeake Police Department.
The felony charges are the unauthorized use of a credit card and the unauthorized taking of a credit card. The misdemeanor charge is one count of petty larceny.
The charges are related to one of the four incidents Chesapeake police recently linked. Virginia Beach police said Thursday that they believe at least one similar larceny in Virginia Beach is connected to the Chesapeake crimes.
Police and concerned real estate agents had been on the lookout for a 30- to 40-year-old black woman with a yellow or orange streak in her hair who had been posing as a potential home buyer. The con artist targeted women who left their purses unattended while the woman was in their offices. When an agent would leave the woman in her office, the woman would take her wallet.
One of the victims, Carole W. Foster of Century 21 Accord, said that $1,300 had been charged to one of her credit cards by the time she discovered her wallet was missing.
KEYWORDS: FRAUD SWINDLE ARREST by CNB