A woman with long red hair and a mysterious tattoo on her right thumb is wanted by the Douglas County Sheriff's Office for allegedly using credit cards stolen from a car at Chatfield State Park to go on a buying spree across the Denver metro area, including a stop to purchase fake eyelashes. Investigators say the cards were taken from a victim's purse during a vehicle break-in at the park last month, then used at multiple locations around the region before the victim could shut the accounts down.
The Douglas County Sheriff's Office has a verified Facebook account.
How a Car Break-In Becomes a Multi-City Fraud Case
The break-in happened inside Chatfield State Park, which draws more than 2 million visitors a year to its campgrounds, trails, and swim beaches, according to Colorado Parks and Wildlife. That kind of visitor volume, with cars parked for hours at trailheads and beaches, has long made the park and similar recreation areas attractive targets for opportunistic thieves working parking lots. Douglas County Sheriff Darren Weekly has previously said vehicle break-ins in the county are frequently linked to secondary financial crimes across the metro area, including stolen credit card sprees and identity theft, a pattern that tracks with what investigators describe in this case.
Once a card is stolen, prosecutors may consider charges related to alleged unauthorized use of a financial transaction device. Prosecutors can also aggregate multiple smaller transactions made across different locations within a six-month window into a single count to reach that felony threshold, per the same legal explainer, which would matter if the suspect's spree touched several stores around the metro area.
Separate Charges Possible Even Without Every Purchase Proven
Colorado law also treats simply holding onto a stolen card as its own crime. Unlawful possession of a stolen financial device is a class 2 misdemeanor under state statute, which means law enforcement could charge a suspect for retaining the stolen cards even if prosecutors can't prove every individual purchase, according to Rights & Liberties Law Firm. That gives Douglas County prosecutors flexibility once a suspect is identified and arrested.
Hoodline previously reported that the Douglas County Sheriff's Office uses automated license-plate-reader cameras.
Crime Stoppers Accepts Phone and Online Tips
Metro Denver Crime Stoppers accepts tips by phone at 720-913-STOP (7867) and online.
Metro Denver Crime Stoppers accepts tips from the public. It's the same tip pipeline Douglas County deputies used in August when they sought help identifying a woman accused of repeatedly shoplifting from two King Soopers stores, a case Hoodline also covered.
For now, the Douglas County Sheriff's Office is asking anyone who recognizes the woman described in the Facebook video, or who has information about the thumb tattoo or the purchases made with the stolen cards, to come forward through Crime Stoppers rather than waiting for deputies to make an identification on their own.
