From Chief P.K. Johnson
Millbrook Police Department
Two separate victims filed reports of Identity Theft with the Millbrook Police Department on February 20th and 23rd, with each victim stating that they’d recently frequented the Taco Bell in Millbrook. After those visits, both victims noticed unauthorized purchases made on their credit/debit cards. Upon receiving these reports Millbrook detectives initiated an investigation. During the course of this investigation, it was ascertained that the same employee was manning the business’ drive-thru window at the time of both transactions between victims and the business. The clerk, later identified as Maria Gearring, a 22-year-old Millbrook resident, was captured on surveillance video utilizing her cellphone to photograph both victim’s credit/debit cards while waiting on their orders to be completed.
On February 26, 2024, Gearring was taken into custody at the business, placed under arrest, being charged with (2) counts of Identity Theft. Ms. Gearring was transported to the Millbrook Police Department for processing and later transported to the Elmore County Jail.
I want to commend our detectives for their work on these two cases, as well as the management from the business, who cooperated fully with our investigation. While it’s unfortunate, we see cases like this from time to time, where clerks at a business will take a picture of an unsuspecting customer’s credit or debit card and utilize that information to purchase items from the internet. More often than not, it ends up, just as it did for the alleged offender in this case. The offender is arrested for a serious criminal offense and is out of a job to boot. It’s not worth it in the end.
We encourage our citizens to monitor their credit and debit card transactions and pay attention to people when submitting those cards for payment of goods and services. A lot of these crimes are committed through opportunity, with many being avoidable. It’s a shame that you have to watch folks like that, but it’s the world that we live in today.
