Two women remained jailed Tuesday after being arrested last week in an alleged identity theft scheme that targeted police officers and firefighters.
Atlanta police spokeswoman Kim Jones said that Cintia Ximena Pedone, 30, and Dawnetta Patrice Underwood, 23, visited Atlanta police precincts, fire stations and MARTA police substations on several days last week "under the guise of AFLAC insurance representatives."
"The women advised that the city was changing its insurance options and offered AFLAC disability insurance, life insurance and health insurance supplements," Jones said. "The women solicited several officers and supervisors to fill out an application packet that included vital personal identification information for the employees, their spouses and children."
Jones said that when the women went to the APD Zone 1 precinct, a lieutenant began to question them, "and eventually ejected them from his precinct."
The lieutenant contacted the department's Personnel Unit, and learned from AFLAC's actual representative to the city that the women were not authorized to solicit information.
"At this point, Major Fraud and the Homeland Security/Intelligence units were contacted," Jones said.
"Ms. Pedone was reached by cell phone and she agreed to come to police headquarters and turn over the documents that she had, which she did," Jones said. "It was discovered that the second suspect was at the Embassy Suites Hotel near the airport. Major Fraud units went to the hotel to recover the documents that she had. She was located and transported back to headquarters."
Jones said that during interviews on Friday, the women gave conflicting and inconsistent answers and explanations, and after a conference with the Fulton District Attorney's office, investigators decided to charge the two.
The women were taken to the Fulton County Jail, charged with multiple counts of identity theft and racketeering. They remained in jail Monday on $55,000 bond.
Jones said that 39 packets of personal information have been recovered.
"Obviously, it's pretty bold to go into a police precinct and target police officers for this," Atlanta police Sgt. Paul Cooper said at a Monday morning news conference. "Anybody can be fooled and this is a good example; if they can get us, they can get anybody."
Cooper said detectives were still trying to determine what the women intended to do with the personal information.
"We're still knee deep in the investigation right now," he said.
The Atlanta Fire Department confirmed that at least one firefighter was affected by the alleged scheme, while MARTA said none of its officers were victims, Channel 2 Action News reported Tuesday.
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