Warrants issued for fraud ring that targeted soldier

By Megan Matteucci

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Police issued warrants for four people who stole a deployed soldier’s credit card and then used it to buy $6,500 in burglary tools.

On Monday, Henry County Police issued warrants for Franklin Delano Cartledge III, Brandon David McElwaney, Kevin Lee Segars and Kelly Louise Flowers.

McElwaney, Segars and Flowers are at-large, Henry County Police Capt. Jason Bolton said. Cartledge is in jail.

Investigators say the suspects broke into Master Sgt. Sylvia Simmons’ Stockbridge home while she was deployed to Afghanistan. They ransacked the home, stealing furniture, clothes, jewelry and her Lowe’s credit card, police said.

The suspects then used the credit card at Lowe’s stores in McDonough, Stockbridge and Riverdale. They spent more than $6,500 on power tools, generators and other tools, Bolton said.

“They purchased bolt cutters and other burglary tools,” he said. “It looks like they are upgrading their burglary tools with this victim’s credit card.”

Detectives reviewed the stores’ security cameras and captured the thieves on the camera. They were identified after the photographs were published and police received tips, Bolton said.

McElwaney, 22, and Segars, 30, are wanted on financial transaction card fraud charges. Flowers, 23, is wanted on an identify theft warrant.

Cartledge, 29, is charged with two counts of financial transaction card fraud. He is being held in the Clayton County jail on unrelated charges. Jail records show he was arrested last month on charges of armed robbery, kidnapping, aggravated assault and failure to register as a sex offender.

Police are also searching for a fifth suspect, who has not been publicly identified. She is not facing any charges in Henry County, but could face charges in Clayton for the purchase made in Riverdale, police said.

Police are still investigating the suspects to see if they are tied to any other crimes.

Officers began investigating the fraud ring in September when Simmons’ daughter stopped by her mother's home and found her front door had been kicked in.

“My doors were busted in and the house was in shambles,” Simmons said last week.

The daughter boarded up the home, but the suspects returned the next day and took the few items they had left behind. Fingerprints confirmed it was the same suspects, Simmons said.

Simmons said she thinks the suspects knew she was out of town. She said thought she had locked all of her credit cards in a bank safety deposit box, but the next month she got a bill from Lowe’s.

Simmons, a mother of three, has spent 30 years in the Army National Guard.

“Hopefully we’re going to break this ring down,” she said. “What makes me sick is that every day we’re in a combat zone fighting for these people’s freedom.”

Anyone with information about the suspects’ whereabouts may contact Detective Wayne Bender at 770-288-8253 or Detective Mike Hardy at 770-288-8254.