Southwest Ohio, Butler County high on identity theft arrests

HAMILTON, Ohio - Butler County and Southwest Ohio appear to be a hot spot for identity theft arrests by the Ohio State Highway Patrol.

In an 18-month period from January of 2010 until last September, troopers made 80 identity theft arrests in Southwest Ohio, with Butler County recording the second highest number of arrests at 41.

Overall, the ID theft arrest numbers have more than doubled in the last 18 months compared with 2008. Back then,  the Ohio State Highway Patrol made 267 arrests, and between January 2010 and September 2011, those arrests for having a false ID or providing a false name have soared to 572.

The Hamilton Highway Patrol Post 9 also had the second highest level of arrests for posts with 41. Post 65 in Circleville, outside of Dayton, Ohio had the highest arrest number at 91.

Franklin County and Columbus were number 1 in Ohio for identity theft arrests at 118 or 21 percent of the total.

Highway Patrol Lt. Anne Ralston tells 9 News that when her troopers are making traffic stops or investigating crashes is when they often uncover identity theft from false driver's licenses and other identification offered by drivers.

In some cases, traffic stop suspects give false names to officers or signed a citation or statement with someone else's name.

ID theft can happen to anyone. Just ask Southgate Mayor James Hamberg, who is also a Vice President at a Tri-State bank. When he and his wife were visiting Krohn Conservatory last year, someone broke into their car, stole his wife's purse and all her credit cards.

Hamburg tells 9 News,  For the first 45 days, it was sheer -- you know what.  I can tell you that because of the phone calls, letters, we even had somebody apply for a card and they had sold the information, is what the police said."

The couple's credit cards and money were quickly on the move, according to Hamburg. He says, "Within the first half hour, there were over $600, $700 charged on the card to a gas station on Reading Road. Somebody had just brought their friends in and just completely filled up their gas tanks...they did it because they had the zip code off her ID."

More than 60 percent of the Highway Patrol identity theft arrests included charges of forgery. Twenty four percent had a direct identity theft charge and 23 percent were charged with falsification.

Cincinnati Police also say they see the same ID theft trend over the past few years. The worse part of it may be that the next person who will make you an ID theft victim could be someone you know, or even love.

Cincinnati Police Fraud Division Lt. Martin Mack tells 9 News, that when it comes to family and friends, "I can say that's probably 50% of the cases where we get numerous complaints from family members or friends where friends or family members have come across personal papers and personal information and have used that information to get IDs, take out different credit reports."

Fifty four percent of identity theft suspects arrested by the Ohio State Highway Patrol were also charged with having a suspended license (308). Fifteen percent of suspects were charged with operating a vehicle under the influence or OVI (87).