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My head hurts....

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February 06, 2009, 14:16
Stacey L. Brownlee
My head hurts....
Suspect (with really bad credit)uses his name and DOB but another person's SSN (with really good, credit, the EXACT same name as the suspect and a good job as a detective with a PD many states away) to buy two cars from a dealership in my county over the internet. Car dealership delivers the the car to suspect's location in another county far away and the delivery driver has the suspect sign all the paperwork for dealership and loan company in that county. Paperwork includes suspect's name and DOB but victim's SSN. Suspect shows delivery driver his DL at delivery. Deliver driver IDs suspect from photo lineup shown to him by our local PD. First payment to loan company not due yet.
PD wants me to issue warrant for using SSN and they want to report vehicles stolen.
I want to do what I can to help the victim but I'm not sure that we have the venue/jurisdiction to do either.
HELP !!!
February 06, 2009, 14:54
David Newell
What about theft, article. 13.08? Hindering secured creditors, 13.09? Does the venue can't be determined statute help you, article. 13.19?
February 07, 2009, 09:32
Stacey L. Brownlee
I thought about theft and hindering but is it really either of those if the first payment isn't due yet ? They delivered them to his house and he used his real name and dob so it's not like he's hiding. What if he pays the first payment (yeah I know he's not going to but we know thats what he is going to say if we arrest him before its due and his wife/gf will bring the check in the enevlope all ready to be mailed Roll Eyes)
February 07, 2009, 11:51
bgreer
Sec. 32.51. FRAUDULENT USE OR POSSESSION OF IDENTIFYING INFORMATION. (no jurisdictional issue is there?)
February 07, 2009, 11:59
GG
Yeah, why not Fraudulent use, Stacey?
February 07, 2009, 20:28
Stacey L. Brownlee
I was still worried about the venue issue. I can't prove he used it in my county. All paperwork with wrong SSN signed in other county and I can't say he was the one that sent info over the internet.
February 09, 2009, 08:04
Robert S. DuBoise
Have you been able to determine where the victim (whose SS number the Def used) resides? If in your county, that would relieve you of the obligation to prove that any part of the transaction occurred in your county.

As a second note, the car dealer's website should be able to provide you the time and IP address of the computer that logged on to their system and purchased the car. That should allow you to get a grand jury supboena to the ISP to determine who had that IP address on that particular date and time. That should easily be enough for a warrant to get inside the Def's home and get the computer for a forensic analysis.
February 09, 2009, 09:36
WHM
The car dealership's agent should be able to testify that he received the information from the suspect on a computer that was in your county at the time. The delivery driver will be able to corroborate that the suspect was the one who sent it, because when he delivered the cars the suspect behaved as though he knew all about the transaction, and expressed no surprise that he was having cars delivered to him. That should be sufficient to show that he "transferred" the identifying information of another in your county to show venue under 32.51, even without recourse to computer forensics.
February 09, 2009, 13:55
AlexLayman
It is very common for the actual web server machine to be located in a different county than the business who's site is hosted on that server.

Also any actual credit card processing is almost always done on a third server owned by a different company.
February 10, 2009, 09:00
Stacey L. Brownlee
Working on the computer stuff but that takes awhile and of course the PD wants warrants now because they think they can recover the property.

Car dealerships agent can say that someone sent the info over to them by internet but they can't say it was our suspect typing at the computer.

Detective thinks that he has the county where the papers were signed on board so that should work for the FUII.

Thanks to everyone for the input.
February 10, 2009, 10:47
Ken Sparks
Would it be possible to place a tape-recorded phone call by an officer posing as an employee of the dealership to confirm the transaction for "accountng purposes" or some other conver story and verify the TDL, DOB, and SSN?