DECATUR, Ill. (WAND) – Police arrested a woman after receiving a report that fraudulent charges were being made on an account belonging to the Decatur Celebration, Inc.
Police arrested 32-year-old Tasha Martin on Friday on charges of identity theft. Celebration organizer Lori Sturgill reported the charges and said they dated back to Aug. 3 through the 6th.
Sturgill said she had possession of the card, however employees were allowed to take it for purchase toward the Celebration.
The charges were at Best Buy in Forsyth, two McDonald’s in the area, a Sonic in Oklahoma and AT&T in Texas. The total of the charges was over $1,000.
Detectives were able to obtain surveillance video of Martin at Best Buy with her boyfriend purchasing items. The boyfriend is a longtime volunteer of the Celebration.
Sturgill told police she recalled giving the card for an approved purchase to the volunteer, who passed it to Martin to hold onto.
While at Best Buy, Martin is seen purchasing items from the store. Her boyfriend is seen standing off to the side and appears to not be involved with the purchase. Martin is seen again on the next day entering the Best Buy alone and purchase more items from the store. Martin returned to Best Buy a third time but the card had been reported stolen and was declined.
Detectives say Martin was never in possession of the card while making the purchases. She manually entered the number in an app called “wallet app” on her mobile phone.
Martin was being held on a $10,000 bond.
