Ann Arbor Police Department officers arrested a California man this week after connecting him to an extensive identity theft and counterfeit operation that spanned across several states.
30-year-old Shawn Ingram was apprehended after a gas station clerk reported his use of a counterfeit $20 bill, Channel 4 News reported. Police officers had been previously alerted that numerous counterfeit bills had been circulating in Ann Arbor. The clerk noted Ingram’s license plate number and police tracked it to a car rental agency. The AAPD then traced Ingram to a hotel parking lot and arrested him as he was exiting an elevator in the hotel.
The detectives discovered several dozen counterfeit debit cards, credit cards, iTunes and other gift cards, numerous sheets of counterfeit currency, multiple fake driver’s licenses and devices capable of producing these items. They believe the suspect has been operating out of a mobile lab in order to maintain discretion and operate behind the scenes.
“We believe that this operation has crossed into several states,” AAPD said in a statement. “The suspect has used numerous rented cars and hotel rooms in what we believe is to keep the criminal enterprise mobile thereby increasing the likelihood of success.”
Ingram is currently being held in Washtenaw County Jail and is charged with nine felony counts.