A 17-Year-Old Girl Turns Herself in for Credit Card Fraud

A 17-year-old girl turned herself in to Arlington Police Monday after her photo was published in many major outlets last week while she was wanted for identity theft and larceny.

The story garnered a great deal of attention because the young woman purchased a card for her mother with the stolen card.

The card was reported stolen by an Arlington man on May 11. The victim was not sure whether it was taken from his home or his car and was not aware until later that the card had been used to make several purchases the previous weekend, mostly on May 9 (Mother's Day) and 10.

The suspect mostly purchased $100 gifts cards because "gift cards are just as good as cash and are hard to trace back," Bongiorno said. She also was seen purchasing a Mother's Day card, presumably for her own mother on May 9, which was Mother's Day.

Most of the purchases were made at CVS, Dunkin Donuts and Johnnie's Foodmaster in Medford, Malden and Boston. "There were 12 locations in all," Bongiorno said.

The suspect claims she found the credit card in Medford, which took the case out of Arlington. "Unfortunately, we had to turn her over to Medford Police Department," said Captain Robert Bongiorno of the Arlington Police Department.

"The media coverage definitely helped us get this case closed," said Bongiorno.