Dec. 01--ST. PETERS -- St. Peters police have broken up a large-scale crime ring that involves two men who allegedly hired young women to buy iPads from area stores with stolen credit cards.
They used master keys to Ford and Chevrolet vehicles to open locked cars, specifically on gym parking lots, to steal purses and wallets containing credit cars, police said Thursday. The women used the credit cards to buy iPads at area Target, Walmart and Best Buy stores.
The ring has been going on for at least the last six months, and police in St. Louis County, St. Charles, O'Fallon Ballwin, and Ellisville are also investigating. The ring could also span into other states, said St. Peters Police Officer Melissa Doss.
Doss said people should be cautious when leaving wallets and purses in their cars, even locked ones, and go inside a gym to work out. Thieves know gym parking lots are prime places to find loot in cars, she said.
"Criminals lurk around the parking lot area, and sometimes they have very good luck," she said.
Three members of the ring were charged with felonies Wednesday in St. Charles County Circuit Court. Michael A. Johnson, 27, of St. Louis County, was charged with credit card theft. Chelsea D. Wheeler, 23, of O'Fallon, Mo., was charged with credit card theft and fraudulent use of a credit device. Samantha Leigh Ginocchio, 21, of St. Louis County, charged with receiving stolen property.
Court documents say that on Friday, Wheeler stole a purse from a locked vehicle on the parking lot of Gold's Gym at 5230 Highway 94 in St.. Peters and used it to buy an iPad the same day at Walmart at 1661 Jungermann Road in St. Peters. She also used stolen credit cards to buy iPads and more than $2,000 in other items from Target and Cabela's stores in St. Charles, police say.
On Tuesday at the same Walmart in St. Peters, Johnson and Ginocchio were caught by store security officers after Ginocchio tried to buy an iPad with a stolen credit card. The officers recognized her after getting a tip from police, and the officers ran after her after the she told them she had to get her identification from her car. Johnson had been parked at a nearby KFC restaurant parking lot to avoid the surveillance cameras at Walmart, and police arrested them both after Ginocchio jumped into the back seat.
Police said they found about 20 master keys to Ford and Chevrolet vehicles in Johnson's vehicle. Ginocchio told police that Johnson and another man, who has not yet been charged, had "a large-scale operation that involves driving numerous girls out of state to acquire a large number of iPads to sell at a cheaper price on the street," according to court documents.
Johnson is currently on probation and has a recent history in St. Peters involving numerous thefts from cars in gym parking lots.
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