New photo, description to help ID identity thief who struck hard while victim's on vacation

WANTED IN RENTON --
Renton police say you are looking at a big time identity thief and they need your help to shut him down quickly.

Watch the video from an electronics store on September 2nd where detectives say the suspect used the victim's name, Social Security number and information to fill out a credit application and open a charge account.

He used his own photo though on the ID.



That day, detectives say he bought several thousand dollars’ worth of electronics, then returned the next day and charged several thousand more. On the 3rd day he came into the store, detectives say the clerk got suspicious. "During that visit, the clerk decided they wanted to look at the ID a little closer, realized there was something funny with it,” said Renton Police Cmdr. David Leibman. “The suspect made an excuse and left the store. As it turned out when we contacted the victim, we found out the same suspect had opened up dozens of accounts at major retailers all over the Seattle area in the victim's name and we also have some good video of him in a local hardware store doing the same thing. We would love to get this guy identified and caught. This is one victim and tens of thousands of dollars of theft and really destroying this victim's life. This person is doing this every day. Probably several hours a day. We probably have dozens and dozens of victims so every minute he's out there is a minute he's doing this to somebody else."

Turns out as this guy was opening charge accounts, the victim's credit monitoring service was alerting him, but he was on vacation and out of reach of his email, so he didn't see the alerts. Police say this is either one slick, or one very lucky thief who needs to be caught now.

If you can identify him, submit the tip to Crime Stoppers by using the P3 Tips App on your phone or call 1-800-222-TIPS. It is anonymous and there's a cash reward of up to $1,000 for any information that leads to an arrest in the case.