Fairfax County police arrested a Franklin Farm teen not once, not twice, but three times, last month, charging him with six crimes. He's currently free on $33,000 bond but, if convicted, he could be sentenced to more than a decade in prison.
Accused of three drug offenses, two credit-card crimes and one obstruction of justice is Alexander Robles, 18, of 13434 Elevation Lane. In a Sept. 30 affidavit for a search warrant to seek illegally purchased goods in his home, police Det. Cindy Lundberg explained why the teen-ager is suspected of the credit-card offenses.
POLICE RECEIVED and executed the search warrant, the same day, and reportedly found some of these things in Robles' home. One of them — a "Girls Gone Wild" DVD — was allegedly in the DVD player in the basement.
In the affidavit, Lundberg wrote that, on Sept. 9, a citizen reported that he'd lost his wallet — containing several credit cards and cash — while walking in his neighborhood. Once he realized his wallet was missing, he began calling his credit-card companies to cancel his cards.
Unfortunately, though, when he called to cancel his VISA card, he was told that someone had fraudulently used it at the Best Buy store in the Fair Lakes Shopping Center.
"Investigation revealed that the suspect used the stolen credit card to purchase numerous compact discs, digital video discs and PlayStation games for a total of $322.76," wrote Lundberg. "The suspect then went to Tweeter sound systems store [in] Fairfax and attempted to use the card to purchase over $600 worth of car stereo equipment."
However, VISA denied the transaction, and the suspect left the store. According to the detective, the store manager then gave police a description of the suspect and the vehicle he was driving.
When police relayed this information to the victim, wrote Lundberg, "He realized that it fit the description of one of his neighbors and the vehicle he drives. The citizen went to that neighbor's house and saw the vehicle pull into a parking space. The suspect [allegedly] got out of the vehicle wearing the same clothes the manager of Tweeter [had] described."
From the vehicle's license plate, police were able to determine their suspect's home address and reportedly identified him as Robles. Next, the detective obtained Robles' photo and put it in a photo line up for the Tweeter store manager to see.
"HE IMMEDIATELY picked out Robles as [allegedly] being the person who attempted to use the stolen credit card," wrote Lundberg. "[I] also viewed surveillance video from the Best Buy store showing Alexander Robles exiting the store after the fraudulent transaction. He was [reportedly] carrying a bag containing compact discs, digital video discs and PlayStation games."
In the affidavit, Lundberg sought permission to try to locate specific items in Robles' three-level, Oak Hill townhouse. She especially hoped to find "merchandise fraudulently purchased with the stolen credit card," specifically:
"PlayStation 2 [PS2] NCAA Football 2004; PS2 Lord of the Rings: Fellows; PS2 The Hulk, The Wall; Sound of Summer: Very Best Of; Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club; Legend Remastered; Ownerz, Chapter II: Family Reunion; Classic Hits Live; V1 Girls Gone Wild: Exposed; 1.5-meter S-VHS cable, Sony 30 spindle of CDR audio and the [stolen] credit card."
Police executed the search, Sept. 30, reportedly seizing "NCAA Football 2004" from a basement drawer and "Girls Gone Wild" from a DVD player in the basement. Police also reportedly obtained the CDs "Legend, Bob Marley," "Ownerz" and "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club" from the car Robles allegedly drove. Robles was then taken into custody.
* However, it wasn't his first arrest. His first trip to the Adult Detention Center was Sept. 10, on charges of obstruction of justice and drug conspiracy. He was released, a few hours later, on $8,000 bond.
* ON SEPT. 17, police charged Robles with two counts of the manufacture and distribution of a controlled substance. Six days later, on Sept. 23, he bonded out again. But this time, his bond amount was $20,000.
* Then on Sept. 30, police charged the teen with credit-card theft and credit-card fraud in connection with the incidents at Best Buy and Tweeter. Within hours, he was released on $5,000 bond.
Robles is scheduled for a Nov. 25 preliminary hearing in General District Court on all the charges. Both credit-card crimes are punishable by as much as five years in prison — 10 years total.