Crime & Safety

Alert Jewelry Store Employees Help Stop Identity Theft, Police Say

A fraudulent purchase alert from one Brookfield store was picked up by another Brookfield store at just the right time.

Employees at two Brookfield jewelry stores worked together to foil two people who police say used fraudulent credit cards to attempt to purchase thousands of dollars worth of jewelry.

A 38-year-old Florida man faces up to eight felony counts of either credit card-fraudulent use or identity theft, and a female acquaintance is charged three times as party to a crime.

According to a criminal complaint filed in Waukesha County Court, Brookfield Police were called to Kay Jewelers at Brookfield Square Mall on March 13 regarding a suspected fraudulent purchase of a gold necklace and bracelet worth more than $4,100. While officers were investigating, employees at , in the 16000 block of Blue Mound Road, set off their panic alarm.

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They later told officers they received a fraud alert from Kay Jewelers with the description of two people who happened to be in the Jared store at the moment the alert came in. Officers responded and after a brief struggle and use of a Taser, subdued and arrested Luis A. Leyva of Land O’Lakes, FL.

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In his wallet, according to the complaint, were 12 credit cards and a Mississippi driver’s license in the name of a man different from Leyva.

The complaint also indicated that Fred Meyer Jewelers at Southridge Mall in Greendale reported a purchase on Feb. 15 by a man using the same identification and matching Leyva’s description.

The 29-year-old woman with Leyva, Daylin Chavez of Tampa, FL, did not resist officers or attempt to help Leyva resist, according to the complaint.

Leyva is scheduled to appear in court Wednesday.


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