Authorities said an employee at the Tennessee Aquarium was using credit card numbers from Aquarium customers for paying her power bill.
Tracie L. Patterson, 34, of 6324 Celtic Dr., is charged with fraudulent use of a credit card and theft under $500.
Officials said the investigation began when a Springfield, Ill., woman saide she used a credit card to purchase Aquarium tickets by phone. She said she later learned her credit card account had been charged $277, $75 and two $3.95 convenience fees.
She said she found this odd since she lives in Illinois and the questionable payments were made to the EPB of Chattanooga.
The Illinois woman said she found that her credit card had been used to pay the power bill of Ms. Patterson on Celtic Drive.
Authorities said they interviewed Ms. Patterson, and she said she did in fact work at the Tennessee Aquarium and had taken the credit card order from the Illinois woman.
She said she wrote the credit card number down on a note pad and tore out the paper and brought it home due to having child support information on it.
Ms. Patterson said her mother-in-law, Bonita Daniels, must have taken the card number and paid for the power bill.
Authorities said they administered a polygraph to Ms. Patterson, and afterwards she confessed to assisting her mother-in-law in using the card number to pay the power bill.
Officials said they then learned that Ms. Patterson had used 18 different credit card numbers to pay her power bill. They said she admitted to obtaining most of those card numbers from her position at the Tennessee Aquarium.