A Yavapai County woman was arrested Monday after police say she used a stolen credit card to pay -- among other things -- two court fines.
On Sunday, the Yavapai County Sheriff's Office got a call from a woman who said she'd had her purse stolen from her unlocked car the day before, while the car sat in her driveway.
Inside the purse, the woman had a digital camera, a cell phone, a checkbook, and two credit cards.
The next day, the victim told investigators that she contacted her bank and found out that one of the stolen credit cards was used to arrange a tow service for a disabled truck on Echo Canyon Road.
The victim happened to live about a mile from where the truck was disabled and recalled the truck's female owner trying to recruit her to help fix the truck as she drove by on the way home.
Maybe she should have tried a little harder to help because about an hour later, her purse was gone.
Police contacted the tow company and were able to track down the truck's owner, 40-year-old Maria Booker.
As it turns out, Booker didn't limit her spending spree to hiring a tow truck; she apparently also used the credit cards to pay two court fines, a car insurance bill, and an insurance bill.
Booker was booked into the Camp Verde Detention Center on two counts of receiving a fraudulently obtained credit card, four counts of assuming false ID to defraud, four
counts of theft of services, four counts of use of credit card without owner's consent, and one count of burglary. She remains in-custody on a $20,000 bond.
We're assuming the court will require she post that bond in cash -- or at least with her own credit card (if she has one).
