An NYPD traffic agent stole an Annadale woman’s identity to go shopping in Queens and the Bronx, according to authorities.
Police first arrested Erika Armstrong, 22, in Queens back in December, after, authorities said, she and her mom tried to open up a credit card with a stolen identity at a Sears store so they could go on a $1,000 shopping spree.
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An Internal Affairs Bureau investigation followed, and it turned out the identity belonged to a woman living in Annadale, and Ms. Armstrong had used it to open up another account, at a JCPenney store in the Bronx.
The alleged victim, who spoke to the Advance on condition of anonymity, figured out her identity had been stolen after getting an e-mail from Bloomingdale’s over the Christmas season.
“It just said, ‘Thank you, would you take a customer survey,'” she recounted. When she called Bloomingdale’s to inquire further, she found out someone had taken out a card in her name, and maxed it out.
“They bought, watches and clothing and perfume. Anything that they could,” she said, adding that similar accounts had been opened at Sears, JCPenney and Victoria’s Secret.
Ms. Armstrong, a Brooklyn resident, started work as an NYPD agent in July 2010, just two days after her 20th birthday, according to police. She and the victim have never met, according to authorities and the victim.
Her first arrest came on Dec. 22 — according to a report in the Queens based Times Newsweekly, she and her mother, Dena Armstrong, were accused of trying to open up a store credit card at a Sears in Rego Park to purchase $1,000 worth of goods, using a Pennsylvania driver’s license. She couldn’t recite the address on the license when asked, though, and couldn’t correctly pronounce the last name, authorities told the paper.
Police found two Pennsylvania driver’s licenses and two credit cards opened using other names in the traffic agent’s possession, the paper reported.
That led to charges of criminal possession of a forged instrument, grand larceny and criminal possession of stolen property. She was suspended following that arrest, and the NYPD’s Internal Affairs Bureau launched an investigation, an NYPD spokesman said.
According to a spokeswoman for the Queens district attorney’s office, Ms. Armstrong pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct — a violation, not a criminal charge — in exchange for a conditional discharge in January.
Though she was returned to the job, the Internal Affairs investigation continued, and investigators uncovered that she used a stolen identity to make credit card purchases at a JCPenney on Baychester Avenue in the Bronx, the NYPD spokesman said. Those purchases took place on Dec. 21 under the Annadale woman’s name, according to court papers.
Police arrested her in the North Shore’s 120th Precinct Thursday morning. She’s charged with second- and third-degree identity theft, according to information from District Attorney Daniel Donovan’s office.
