Arlington Heights police received a report on December 21 that an unknown offender removed a wallet from an unlocked locker at Xsport Fitness, 320 East Golf Road. Several unauthorized charges were made on a credit card from inside the victim’s wallet on the same date. The unauthorized charges and the location of the unauthorized purchases were detected immediately when the victim checked with his credit card company. Food, gas, movie rentals and vehicle parts were purchased totaling over $250.00 at the following locations: Jewel/Osco in Arlington Heights, O’Reilly Auto Parts in Arlington Heights, Exxon Mobil Gas in Palatine, and a Redbox Movie kiosk in Oak Brook.
Arlington Heights police investigators checked each location and recovered available video surveillance images. Police noticed at least two male subjects associated with purchases at the time the credit card was used. As part of the investigation, police detectives went to Xsport Fitness to work on recognizing the suspects from recovered video surveillance. On December 30, 2011 just before 9:30 p.m. investigators recognized the two subjects while they worked out at Xsport Fitness, took both into custody, and transported the male subjects to Arlington Heights Police Department Headquarters.
After further investigation, one of the subjects was charged with felony identity theft and felony forgery. The offender that was charged was identified by Arlington Heights police as Ralph Johnston, 25, of the 2200 block of Baldwin Way, Palatine. The other subject was not charged.
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