Palo Alto police arrested two people on suspicion of identity theft on Monday evening, a police officer said.
Officers were dispatched to a Nordstrom store at Stanford Shopping Center located at 180 El Camino Real at 7:54 p.m. on an unrelated police call when the store’s loss prevention called their attention to a man or a woman in the store for suspicious activity, Officer Sean Downey said.
The female suspect first approached a cash register to return an unspecified item and received over $1,000 back, Downey said.
Nordstrom’s policy does not require a customer to have a receipt to make a return, Downey said.
The male suspect then approached another cash register to return an unspecified item but his transaction was denied because loss prevention flagged him for previous frauds at the store, Downey said.
As they were exiting the store police officers stopped the suspects and upon searching them and their silver Mercury Sedan, discovered stolen property including a credit card that was linked to 58-year-old woman from Pinole, Downey said.
They were identified as San Francisco residents Jessica Reed, going under the fake name Tiffany Marie Dunson, 31, and Dwayne Marcel Ross, 38. Both were both booked into the Santa Clara County Main Jail in San Jose.
Reed was arrested on alleged possession of stolen property, possession of paraphernalia, identity theft, possession of controlled substance and burglary.
Dunson was arrested on alleged attempted burglary, possession of stolen property, two counts of identity theft and one count of violating post release community supervision.
An investigation is ongoing as there may be multiple victims, Downey said.
Please, everyone, let’s be classy enough not to request mug shots.
Huh?
What’s not classy about getting their mug shots? That way if they’re lurking around my house, I get to have a clue.
Why doesn’t Nordstrom require a receipt for returns? – weird.
Good work to everyone responsible for catching these criminals.
Dwayne has been in the press before; see the Pleasanton Weekly story here:
http://www.pleasantonweekly.com/story.php?story_id=8823
Thank you, PAPD and Nordy’s Loss Prevention for taking these two off the streets! We have had our identities stolen twice since 1999. It is a painstaking and miserable process filled with lots of red tape to fix such a theft.
That said, I hope Nordy’s starts requiring receipts for refunds, like most other stores do.
Although technically Nordstrom does not require receipts for returns, they keep electronic records of purchases. As a result, whether I have the actual paper receipt or not, Nordstrom always has a record of my purchases. In addition, customers can choose to have their receipts emailed which means you never have to deal with paper receipts. This saves trees, plus it’s convenient in case I would ever lose a receipt. I know both Nord and I have a record of it electronically.
Nordstrom also records info on “frequent returners” who don’t use receipts, or whose receipts are suspicious. Often loss prevention staff will keep an eye on the frequent returners. In other words, a receipt my not be necessary, but Nordstrom isn’t naive about theft. They balance superior customer service & the $$ that brings in w/what they lose to scurrilous, dishonest folks.
Nordstrom’s lax return policy encourages crooks to steel. They may consider the policy as a customer satisfaction tool. But Nordstrom and similar retailers create problem for consumers like us who have experienced ID theft.
Really, darlings! Receipts are so déclassé.
It’s our prison’s lax return policy that encourages thieves to steal.
While Nordstrom’s does have electronic receipts to use in returns, it could do the truly gauche thing and request a photo I.D. as a back-up.
Actually @stanfurd, by not requiring ID, Nordys is actually reducing the need for identity theft.
I don’t understand how frequent returns is considerd theft?
Can someone explain?