Fake Credit Card Incident Spirals Into Much More In Stafford

STAFFORD, VA — Three New Yorkers are being held without bond after trying to use a fake credit card Saturday morning at a Kangaroo Express convenience store near Garrisonville Road but that's far from the only reason they're in jail, according to the Stafford County Sheriff's Office. They also face a variety of other charges stemming from the incident.

Shortly after 6 a.m., police went to the store after being alerted by an employee, who said a man tried to make a $68 purchase with what the worker believed to be a fake credit card and driver's license. After being confronted by the employee, the man left in a white vehicle. Police ran the license plate number and found it belonged to a dead person.

Another officer spotted and stopped the vehicle on Garrisonville Road. Three adults were inside, as was a young child in a car seat that wasn't secured to the vehicle. The occupants were Alexis Curtis, 24, the driver of the vehicle and mother of the child, Nnamdi Chijoke Onyeukwu, 24, and Peter Germain, 35. A search of the vehicle found marijuana.

Curtis told police Onyeukwu offered to pay her $150 to drive him from New York to North Carolina but that she had no connection to the fake cards. She did, though, give police a fake New York driver's permit and admitted to smoking pot while in the vehicle and in front of her child. She also had 13.6 grams of weed under her clothing. Police then found she was wanted in Durham, N.C., for assault and battery and assault with a deadly weapon.

Curtis wound up being charged with felony child neglect, possession of marijuana, possession of a controlled substance by an inmate, conspiracy to commit a felony and giving false identity to law enforcement.

Onyeukwu — the one who entered the store — was charged with credit card larceny, conspiracy to commit a felony, identity fraud, credit card fraud, contributing to the delinquency of a minor, obtaining by false pretenses and possession of marijuana.

Germain was charged with contributing to the delinquency of a minor, conspiracy to commit a felony and possession of marijuana.

Photos: Stafford County Sheriff's Office