Syracuse (WSYR-TV) - One day after his photos were aired on NewsChannel 9, a suspect Caught on Tape is in police custody.
Syracuse police have arrested Sonny Rizzo, 24, of Syracuse, in connection with the theft of a wallet from an unattended shopping cart in Sam’s Club in East Syracuse in late June.
Police say Rizzo used a credit card from that wallet to make several purchases at stores in the Syracuse area. He is charged with forgery, identity theft and criminal possession of stolen property.
Police say Rizzo’s mother turned him in, and he later confessed to the crime.
In addition to Rizzo, 25-year-old Timothy Jones of Seymour Street has also been arrested and charged with forgery, identity theft and grand larceny; police say Jones, who works at that Sam’s Club, was the one who took the card.
Jones has also confessed to police.
June 30, 2009:
Caught on Tape: Shopping spree with stolen credit card
Syracuse (WSYR-TV) - Police are pretty sure they will catch a thief -- as long as enough people get a look at the suspect. He was Caught on Tape not once, but twice.
Store cameras got a good look at the man investigators say went on a shopping spree with a stolen credit card.
Syracuse police say it all started when the victim left his wallet unattended in a shopping cart, and soon after it was stolen.
Sgt. Tom Connellan says the crime happened last Tuesday at the Sam’s Club on Erie Boulevard in DeWitt.
A credit card from that wallet was then put to use that afternoon and evening in stores all over Syracuse.
“We discovered that the card had been used five times between 3:00 in the afternoon and 8:00 at night,” Connellan says.
Cameras spotted the suspect making purchases at Granby's Market on Westcott Street. Just 15 minutes later, the suspect used that card again at the Mobil Mart on Nottingham Road, and again, he was Caught on Tape.
In all, about $1,000 in purchases were made, from Nottingham Road to a Geddes Street clothing store, to a north side market on Butternut Street. None of the clerks asked for a second form of ID, and that's where police say you can help yourself:
“What we suggest is that you try to maybe write on your credit card, ‘see id’, so that when the clerks do get the card, and they try to compare the signature, that person has to provide some identification, maybe with a picture, so they know it's the right person using the card,” Connellan says.
