Diligence and attentiveness on the part of several Pea Ridge police officers led to the arrest of two men involved in a theft/fraud ring.
Lt. Ryan Walker was inside Neighborhood Market Wednesday, Jan. 7, when Pea Ridge officers were dispatched to the Neighborhood Market for an agency assist. Officers in Crossett, Ark., were watching activity on stolen bank card numbers and saw activity was happening in Pea Ridge and notified Benton County Central Communications.
Detective Chris Olson, Sgt. Mitch Brown, officer Brandon Davis and Benton County Sheriff's deputy Mark Pitts responded to the scene and saw a vehicle matching the description of the suspect vehicle. As a result of the investigation, two men -- Ramon Enrique Olivia Lao, 24, and Vladamire U. Guitierrez-Martinez, 45, both of Houston -- were arrested for felony theft of property, felony computer fraud and felony use of credit/debit cards, all charges from Crossett.
Although the truck appeared to match the description, while talking with officers from Crossett, it appeared it was a different truck. Sgt. Brown, while examining photographs sent to Pea Ridge from Crossett, noticed the vehicle they had stopped in a photograph right behind the initial suspect vehicle.
"Initially we were told a black Ford F150 pickup truck with three Hispanic males," Olson said. Once the vehicle was stopped, they noticed that one of the trucks had a took box and another didn't. Also, there were two males in the stopped vehicle.
During the investigation, Pea Ridge police realize they have the second suspect vehicle and suspects that were formerly in a different vehicle.
"There was a little confusion," Olson said, admitting that for a moment, they thought they may have had the wrong suspects until Brown noticed the vehicle they had stopped as another vehicle in the photographs.
"They didn't realize they had two suspect vehicles," Brown said. "They only knew about one of the vehicles."
"Basically, Sgt. Brown gave them information they didn't have yet," Walker said.
Crossett police sent a wrecker from Crossett for the vehicle and the chief of police and a detective came to Pea Ridge to pick up the suspects and evidence.
Brown said someone had apparently hacked a computer system, stolen bank card numbers and made fraudulent bank cards. Those cards were then used at stores to purchase gift cards.
"They'd been chasing them about two weeks," Walker said. "I'm extremely proud of our officers, of their diligence and not giving up."
He said the thefts have been attempted in several towns in Arkansas, Missouri and Oklahoma and have cost the bank more than $30,000.
Sports on 01/14/2015