The Dalton Police Department is asking for the public’s help with identifying a woman who used a credit card that was stolen from a mall in Chattanooga. The suspect was recorded on store surveillance in Dalton attempting to buy $750 in prepaid credit cards.
The credit card was stolen on Oct. 1 when a woman’s purse was taken from the dressing room area of Forever 21 in Hamilton Place Mall at approximately 2:30 p.m. About half an hour later, a woman tried to buy diapers and the prepaid credit cards using a self-checkout station at the Kroger on West Walnut Avenue in Dalton. The suspect was able to purchase one $50 prepaid MasterCard at the self-checkout before the victim’s bank shut down the card for suspicious activity. After attempting to buy more prepaid cards two more times, the suspect left the stack of unpurchased credit cards at the self-checkout and left the store.
The suspect is a black female who wore dark-rimmed eyeglasses and a V-necked black and white striped shirt. She was traveling in a maroon four-door passenger car, possibly a Mercury Sable. The vehicle has a sticker in the bottom right hand corner of the windshield. While the suspect was inside the Kroger, a heavy-set black female got out of the car and was seen on video standing next to it.
Also stolen in the purse was a “challenge coin” given to the victim’s boyfriend for marksmanship as an Army paratrooper. He is training to be an Army Ranger. The victim hopes to have that coin returned with her belongings.
Anyone with information on this crime or the identity of the suspect is asked to contact Detective Brian Shirley at 706-278-9085, dial 9 and enter extension 189.