Published: August 29, 2008 01:13 am            

CRIME: Woman who is wanted in Amherst is arrested in Lockport

City police assisted the Amherst Police Department in apprehending a larceny suspect on Thursday afternoon.

Detective Lt. Scott Seekins said police heard over the radio that Amherst police were trying to locate a white Chevrolet Impala, which had reportedly been involved in a credit card fraud incident earlier.

The car had been rented out of Rochester, and Amherst police believed the driver may have been headed north on Transit on the way back there, Seekins said.

Seekins and Detective Capt. Rick Podgers drove down South Transit looking for the car, and eventually spotted it in the parking lot of a South Transit Road business, Seekins said.

State Police also responded to the scene, and a man and woman inside the car were detained for Amherst police, Seekins said.

Amherst police provided Podgers with a DVD capture of a female suspect from the earlier crime. Podgers played the DVD in his patrol car, Seekins said.

“The person depicted in the crime being committed on video wasn’t either one of the two (people) we had,” he said.

Officers determined the woman on the DVD was a third suspect who was inside a South Transit Road business at the time, the report said.

The woman reportedly had a stolen wallet containing stolen ID and credit cards.

A store clerk reportedly told Seekins the woman had tried to purchase a $500 XBox.

“She was inside (the store) committing another crime identical to what she had done in Amherst,” Seekins said.

The clerk said the store had denied the purchase, and the woman had left the wallet on a DVD rack inside the store. She had obtained a restroom key from another clerk, and was hiding in the restroom, the clerk said.

Amherst police took the woman into custody. Seekins said that as of Thursday evening, she had refused to give Amherst police her name.

Charges in Erie and Niagara counties are pending against all three suspects.

        

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