A former campus watchman at a South Florida high school is accused of identity theft after police found the personal information of 19 people in his car, the Sun-Sentinel reported.
Christopher Corey Barker, 34, of Lauderdale Lakes, was charged with unlawful possession of the personal identification information of another five or more people, according to his arrest affidavit. He was arrested March 15 at South Plantation High School.
Barker had been a campus monitor at the high school and had worked for the Broward County School District since 2012. He remains an employee in the school district but was reassigned, district spokeswoman Iviani Figueroa told the Sun-Sentinel.
According to his arrest report, Barker had been under investigation since December, when deputies said he was driving a car that had a fraudulent temporary license tag. During a traffic stop, deputies said they smelled the odor of burnt marijuana and searched the car, the newspaper reported.
He was released from the scene, but deputies seized items they said did not belong to Barker, according to the arrest affidavit.
According to the arrest report filed by Deputy Keith Rosen, authorities found a blue backpack in the car’s front passenger seat that contained gift cards, stolen mail and two notebooks listing bank accounts, credit card numbers and Social Security numbers of 19 people.
Six of those people have cooperated with the Sheriff's Office and provided sworn statements, according to the arrest report. Five of them are employees of the Broward County School District and said they knew Barker, the Sun-Sentinel reported. None of them said they gave Barker permission to possess their information, the newspaper reported.
“It appears Barker is using his employment status as an employee of the Broward County School System as his main source of obtaining people’s personal identification information,” Rosen wrote in his report.
Barker is free on bond, the Sun-Sentinel reported.
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