Police: Tampa a top target for 'Felony Lane' ID theft scheme

The identity theft scheme started with a loosely knit gang of criminals and prostitutes from South Florida and then spread across the country.

Members of the ring never gave themselves a name, but law enforcement officers did: "Felony Lane."

The name comes from the gang's tendency to use the drive-through lane farthest from the bank teller to cash stolen checks or make fraudulent withdrawals, said John Joyce, special agent in charge of the Tampa office of the U.S. Secret Service.

In the past couple of years, Hillsborough County has become a favorite target of the ring - whose members are known to travel across the state.

The most recent bust was Tuesday when Hillsborough sheriff's deputies arrested five people from central and southern Florida accused of using stolen ID's and credit cards at a Tampa bank.

The evidence recovered by deputies includes 19 identification cards that did not belong to the suspects, along with wigs and other disguises.

"A lot of these people are heavy drug users," Joyce said. "That's how they feed their habit."

The five people arrested Tuesday are Kathleen Mahoney, 45, and Elizabeth Prather, 38, both of Orlando; Travis Bowles, 30, of Plantation; Derriane Woods, 28, of Lauderhill; and Rodney Robillard, 33, of Sunrise.

"We're focused on these crimes," sheriff's spokesman Larry McKinnon said. "People work very hard to establish credit and keep identities safe, and once that's gone, it's hard to get it back."

On Monday, the crew went to Bank of America at 14002 N. Dale Mabry Highway and tried to withdraw cash with stolen identification, deputies said.

All were booked at Orient Road Jail on charges of auto burglary, grand theft and petty theft. Prather also was charged with violating probation for drug-related crimes.

They are suspected of breaking into cars in Tampa, Orlando and Fort Lauderdale and taking identification. The five were found Tuesday after a deputy saw two vehicles at a Days Inn on Busch Boulevard that the suspects were known to drive.

"They like to come to Tampa because it's a big market for them," McKinnon said.

In January, four people were accused of breaking into vehicles parked at day care centers, shopping centers and gyms. They were arrested after witnesses saw one person smash a car window and take a purse containing bank account information.

In 2009, two gang members seen breaking into cars in Lutz led deputies on a chase and were shot at before surrendering. Those two men were connected to about 30 vehicle burglaries and suspected of defrauding local banks out of more than $50,000, deputies said.

In another case last year, gang members targeted vehicles in apartment complexes, McKinnon said.

Felony Lane is more of a criminal enterprise than a formal street gang such as the Bloods or Crips, Joyce said. It started about four years ago in the Miami area "with one or two guys running a crew of underlings to do the breaking and entering."

Prostitutes were recruited to snatch purses left in unlocked cars or unattended in public areas, he said. Most of the victims were women, as were the gang members who cashed the stolen checks.

The wigs and disguises are used "to make themselves look closer to what's on the identification cards," McKinnon said.

From the far outside drive-through lane, the check casher could closely resemble the victim, investigators said. Usually, another gang member pulls into the lane closest to the window and starts a conversation to distract the teller.

Joyce said the original crew from Miami was broken up a few years ago. But just as an idea, motto or image can go viral on the Internet, the Felony Lane scheme has caught.

Authorities have arrested gang members - or other people trying to pull off the scheme - across the Southeast and as far north as Illinois.

"It's morphed into a modus operandi," Joyce said.

But it also can be easily thwarted, McKinnon said.

"Get your stuff out of visible sight and lock your doors," he said. "The two golden rules."