Two New York residents were arrested Sunday afternoon after allegedly attempting to purchase merchandise with fraudulent credit cards at a Costco self-checkout lane in South Windsor, Connecticut.
The South Windsor Police Department identified the suspects as 35-year-old Brittany A. Howard of the Bronx and 34-year-old Kasheem M.
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Williams of Brooklyn.
Store employees alerted authorities after noticing suspicious activity at the self-checkout terminals around 3:53 p. m.
"Officers responded to Costco (1220 Tamarack Ave) for reports of two shoplifters actively stealing from the store and attempting to pay at the self-checkout with fraudulent credit cards," said South Windsor Police Department.
Before arriving at the South Windsor location, the suspects had reportedly tried a similar scheme at another Costco branch in nearby Enfield.
"Employees were notified that these two suspects, later identified as Howard and Williams, had just attempted the same thing at Costco in Enfield," said Lt.
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Mark Cleverdon, South Windsor police. "Officers arrived on scene and both parties were taken into custody."
A subsequent search of the suspects' vehicle uncovered 28 stolen financial documents registered under various names alongside items believed to have been taken from the Enfield store.
Following their arrest, police discovered that both individuals had active out-of-state extraditable warrants, including a New Jersey warrant for Howard regarding credit card theft and a New York warrant for Williams involving burglary, strangulation, and assault charges.
Both individuals face 28 counts of payment card theft, second-degree larceny, third-degree identity theft, and conspiracy to commit third-degree identity theft.
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Howard and Williams were held on $250,000 surety bonds and were scheduled to appear in Manchester Superior Court on Monday morning.
