More Top Picks Lenovo Yoga Slim 7i Aura Edition Review
player ready...Wilmette police intercepted a carful of fake credit cards July 2, and charged the car’s three occupants with felony possession of counterfeit credit cards after the three reportedly admitted taking part in a scheme that netted them cash for buying gift cards with the fake credit cards.
Zapria Quashay Robinson, 18, of the 1200 block of Lombard Street in Oak Park; Brianna N. Collins, 18, of the 400 block of Grove Street in Oak Park; and Antwon High, 24, of the 3500 block of West Flournoy Street in Chicago, were charged following an incident that ended shortly after 4 p.m. that day in the Edens Plaza parking lot, 3200 Lake Ave.
They are free on electronic monitoring, and are next scheduled to appear on July 31 in Cook County Court in Skokie, a spokesman for the state’s attorney’s office said July 13.
Police said the incident began when officers patrolling the parking lot stopped a car they spotted driving recklessly through it. They stopped the car and searched both it and its occupants: Robinson, the driver, and Collins and High, her passengers.
According to police, the officers found 40 credit cards in the trunk of the car, six credit cards on Robinson and four in Collins’ purse. All had either Robinson’s or Collins’ names on them.
Officers arrested the trio, and the 50 cards were handed over to a Wilmette police detective who ran each of them through fraud-checking software. The Secret Service was also alerted about the cards, police said.
Police said the detective found that the numbers and banks supposedly linked to the credit cards didn’t match numbers and banks that actually did link to the physical cards. According to the detective, that meant the cards were fake and had been printed with re-encoded numbers.
Police said the three arrestees waived their Miranda rights and told police that Collins and Robinson got the cards from High, who in turn said he got them from someone else, a man with the street name “Blood Money.”
Police said Robinson and Collins said the scheme had them use the false credit cards to buy gift cards. Police said Collins and Robinson said they would get roughly $100 in cash for every $400 in gift cards they could deliver. High reportedly told police he acted as security for the women as they made purchases, and had hoped to make $100 for doing so that day.
kroutliffe@pioneerlocal
Twitter: @pioneer_kathy