This is part 1 of a 2 part Reporter investigation.
An arrest by bail bond agents in Long Beach, Calif. on Nov. 20 put a stop to an alleged identify thief and Kent resident who was listed on Washington’s Most Wanted.
The arrest of Jocelyn Valerie Ruiz, 20, is relief for a 31-year-old Kirkland woman, who police believe was a victim of a massive identity theft. But it didn’t stop there. Ruiz is believed to have allegedly planned an armed robbery of the victim’s home and physical violence to be carried out by members of a regional gang as revenge for being reported to police.
An arrest warrant was issued after Ruiz failed to appear in court for first degree attempted robbery and two charges of identity theft, with bail set at $250,000. She was tracked down by the bail bond agents from Jail Sucks Bail Bonds following an eight day hunt, according to the Kirkland Police Department (KPD).
Documents from a KPD investigation into Ruiz, obtained by the Reporter through a public information request, reveals an alleged financial nightmare Ruiz created for several people in Renton and Kirkland, whom she would befriend before stealing their personal information. As part of the charges, Ruiz allegedly went to elaborate lengths to obtain the victim’s credit cards in order to purchase clothing, hotel reservations and even a car from a Renton dealership despite the credit check showing a fraud alert. Ruiz is also accused of successfully obtaining credit cards in the victim’s name and violating a no-contact order.
The list of financial records collected as police evidence includes four credit cards, three bank account statements, one debit card and five credit/debit Paypal cards.
Friendship fallout
Interviews by KPD detectives with both parties indicate the two were friends for several months. They often slept at each other’s residences and had planned to take a trip together. It is not known precisely what ended the relationship, but Ruiz claimed in a KPD interview that her brother and the victim had “messed around,” which bothered her. She also claimed the alleged victim had told her “You are not a very good friend. I should kill you.”
In July 2013, before their planned trip, the alleged victim discovered unexplained charges made to her debit and credit card accounts for a room at a Pateros motel and a Lake Chelan hotel, in addition to a $170 charge to Southwest Airlines. When she called the Pateros motel, one of the employees said a woman matching Ruiz’s description and going by her name had rented out a room. Surveillance footage later showed Ruiz in the hotel as well as in the parking lot.
The alleged victim told police that Ruiz questioned her about her ethnicity and her mother’s maiden name, which was a security question for her bank account.
While investigating Ruiz, Kirkland police learned that she had an outstanding warrant for theft out of Kent. She was arrested and interviewed by Kirkland police in the Kent Jail on July 11, 2013. Ruiz allegedly claimed she had taken the trip with the victim to Lake Chelan and that she always paid. She said she offered to pay the alleged victim $1,000 to cover her losses because she wanted to “just go away.”
Following the police investigation, the alleged victim filed a two-year restraining order against Ruiz.
When Kent police attempted to serve orders on Ruiz on July 29, 2013, they discovered she had moved and did not leave a forwarding address.
Afterwards, however, the victim allegedly discovered more and more charges made to several of her credit cards between June 25 and Aug. 29, 2013 totaling in $2,600. In response, the alleged victim was forced to cancel three credit cards. Yet, that didn’t put a stop to it.
Car purchases and credit card fraud
On Aug. 10, 2013, Ruiz allegedly attempted to put a charge for $18,969 on one of the victim’s credit cards while trying to purchase a 2006 Chrysler 300 at Sunset Cars in Renton for $30,0000. Ruiz allegedly listed herself as the co-buyer and the victim as the buyer, according to police documents.
When the alleged victim contacted the dealer, they admitted that while running a credit check on her they received a fraud alert, but decided to process the sale anyway because the victim’s credit score was so high, according to police documents. The purchase was never completed, however, because the victim’s signature was needed on a loan application for the remaining amount due.
The alleged victim began receiving rejection and confirmation notices for credit and debit cards for which she didn’t apply.
During a police interview on Sept. 4, 2013, Ruiz denied using any credit or debit cards belonging to the alleged victim or opening any accounts with her personal information. She allegedly insisted that the victim had agreed to buy the car with her but hadn’t been able to complete the purchase due to a lack of necessary funds.
When asked by police about the use of the card at the Pateros motel, Ruiz claimed she had used her own card.
It was only later that Ruiz allegedly began admitting to taking credit cards mailed to the victim, cards which Ruiz had applied for in the victim’s name after stealing her personal information from a variety of sources, including her email, as well as memorizing her Social Security number – which she was able to repeat to the officer. She also allegedly confessed to opening up an American Express account in the victim’s name without her knowledge.
Ruiz also allegedly admitted to getting American Express and Citi to change the email address and phone number for the alleged victim’s account to her own phone number and an email address she had set up.
When police confiscated Ruiz’s phone they discovered numerous photos of the alleged victim’s driver’s license, Social Security card, AAA card, as well as numerous credit cards. All of the photos had been taken between June 22 and July 6, 2013.
Repeat offender
Although the alleged victim could not know it at the time, her story eerily matches that of another one of Ruiz’s alleged victims in Renton. One of the identity theft charges leveled at Ruiz stems from accusations made by a Renton woman and her father, who claimed Ruiz stole their financial information in a manner similar to that of the Kirkland woman.
The then-18-year-old woman first met Ruiz when they both lived in California, according to Renton Police documents. They later met again in Washington, when the victim was working for the same company as Ruiz. In November 2012, Ruiz rented out a bedroom in the same house as the victim, which was owned by her 46-year-old father.
Within days, the alleged victim noticed mysterious charges to her Bank of America account. She contacted the bank and learned the money went towards a cell phone payment for a person whose name matched that of Ruiz’s grandmother, who shared the same cell phone plan as Ruiz. When she confronted Ruiz about it, Ruiz allegedly claimed it was a mere coincidence.
Later in the month, the alleged victim’s checks started disappearing from the cardboard box she kept them in, only to see them later pass through her account written out to Ruiz, according to RPD documents.
The situation grew worse when the victim’s father was informed by Citi that money had been taken from his credit card account and two convenience checks had been written on his account. After flying back to Washington, the victim’s father met with her and Ruiz at the house, where he found garbage bags with his opened mail in it. He also searched Ruiz’s bedroom and found more of his mail, including an image of a credit card check and his Best Buy credit card.
When police arrived at the house, Ruiz allegedly admitted to stealing mail from both the victim and her father, using his credit cards to make large purchases as well as depositing checks by taking pictures of them with her cell phone and then depositing them in her bank account through her cell phone. The victim’s father then accused Ruiz of using his daughter’s debit card to pay for her cell phone bill, which Ruiz allegedly denied at first before later saying she had used the checking account number to pay the bill over the phone. When the officer searched Ruiz’s bedroom after obtaining her written consent, he found opened garbage bags full of mail on her bed, including letters written from the bank to the victims alerting them of fraudulent checks. She was later charged by the King County Prosecutor’s Office with first degree and second degree identity theft.
Ruiz was arrested for the identity thefts as well as an outstanding warrant, only to be released from jail a couple days later. It was then she allegedly starting threatening the victim through calls and text messages. Meanwhile, she was also allegedly plotting to break into the victim’s residence with the help of at least one gang member, which will be covered in Part 2 of this series.
