Duo Stole Deerfield Man's Identity, Spent Over $10,000: Cops

DEERFIELD, IL — Investigators were able to identify two men who allegedly used the identity of a Deerfield resident with the help of a store clerk who happened to recognize one of them. According to police reports, the employee briefly chatted with the Harvey man after he had just fraudulently bought more than $6,000 worth of jewelry. Both men have been indicted on three counts of identity theft. One is wanted on an active arrest warrant, while the other turned himself in at the Deerfield Police Department in March.

Demetrius L. Johnson, 29, and Demarious K. Collins, 42, tried to open up nearly a dozen credit accounts between June 26 and July 9 of last year using the identity of a Deerfield man, who had also been the victim of identity theft the year before, according to police reports. In the previous case, suspects opened up various Verizon and AT&T accounts using his name, but the cell phone companies did not cooperate and detectives did not identify any leads.

The Deerfield man placed a fraud alert on his credit accounts, which stopped most of the attempts. But thieves were able to get around it by doing going to Kay Jewelers in Orland Park on July 8. Police said the store uses its own bank and Experian failed to pick up the fraud alert. The two men made a purchase of nearly $4,800. The next day, they headed to the Chicago Ridge location and bought $6,374.48 worth of jewelry.

Investigators traced the internet address of the computer used to try to make various online purchases, according to the reports. They were also able to get an image of one of men from a copy of the fraudulent driver's license that had been used to try to open an account with a Rogers & Holland jewelry store in Calumet City.

But a big break came when detectives spoke with a manager at the Chicago Ridge, who explained an employee of the store recognized Collins because she grew up with one of his family members. The manager said the staffer had no idea the two men had just carried out the fraud. Police then pulled video from several incidents in which the men would enter a south suburban business and try to open up a line of credit using a driver's license with the name of the Deerfield man.

After identifying Collins, investigators determined he had been working with Johnson, whose face was on the fake driver's license. By October, they were able to put together photo lineups involving both men and showed them to witnesses.

In January, police obtained felony identity theft warrants for both men. On May 2, a Lake County grand jury returned indictments containing three counts of financial identity theft of between $10,000 and $100,000 for both men.

Collins turned himself in on March 23 and is due to be arraigned on May 15.

Johnson remains at large.