Calculated car prowl crooks: Help ID bold suspects behind $16,000 score using stolen credit cards, store gift cards

WANTED ON BAINBRIDGE ISLAND --
"And in about 2 minutes walks off with over $1,000 in merchandise.” But, Bainbridge Island Police Det. Erik Peffer says that’s just a fraction of the $16,000 score a pair of crooks got from credit cards stolen from a vehicle at a public park.

Detectives say the scheme to cash-in on their crimes was elaborate: Starting with them using the credit cards to buy a bunch of Target gift cards, then going on a scandalous shopping spree with them. "They very quickly went from that Target and started hitting Targets south from Silverdale, all the way up around Puget Sound, back up into the Seattle area and they were buying iPads and Apple Watches,” says Det. Peffer. “I have never seen this amount of money transferred from a stolen credit card to a Target gift card in my career. $16,000 is an incredible amount of money in gift cards. These people are not from our area and they're off-Island and so that's why we need the help of our community members in Washington here."

Detectives say the shorter, stockier suspect even went to a target in Vancouver, so they could be from the southwestern part of the state, or possibly Oregon.



Detectives think the stockier guy is white and the skinny guy is Asian -- and Det. Peffer’s sure they’re not first-timers. "What's interesting is that they know at all these locations, which are all over Puget Sound, kind of where the cameras are at, so they know where to park, in fact, they know how to come into the area without being seen by any of the cameras outside of Target that focus on the parking area. They know to come in separately. They know to change their clothes. They know to keep their heads down and they do this almost throughout the entire store, accept one. They forgot one.”

If you recognize the suspects or know anything that can help Bainbridge Island Police identify them, call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-TIPS, or use the P3 Tips App to submit your information.