Rapid Police Response Nabs Fraud Suspect Moments after Using Stolen Credit Card

BOSTON, Jan. 3, 2012—A Boston Police officer responded so quickly to a report of a stolen credit card being used that he was able to apprehend the suspect with more than $2,000 in fraudulently-purchased merchandise outside a Back Bay retail store, Suffolk County District Attorney Daniel F. Conley said.

KATHRYN P. JEMMETT (D.O.B. 3/23/67) of the Fenway was arraigned today in the Boston Municipal Court on charges of receiving stolen property and credit card fraud over $250. Judge Tracy-Lee Lyons imposed $500 cash bail.

Boston Police responded to the Apple Store yesterday at about 8:15 p.m. to speak with a man whose wallet had been stolen from his locker at a Prudential Center gym. The man, a 24-year-old South Boston resident, had gotten a text from his credit card company stating that a $1,239 purchase had just been made on his card at that location, and on checking his locker he also found that his watch, wallet, and winter coat had also been stolen.

While speaking to the officer, the victim received a second text message indicating that his credit card had been used to make two $600 purchases at the nearby Verizon store.

With this information, the officer drove down Boylston Street in time to see Jemmett leaving the store with several large bags. He asked an employee if anyone had just made such a purchase, and the employee pointed at Jemmett.

“Yes,” the employee said. “She did.”

The officer stopped Jemmett and asked for the credit card with which she had made the purchases. She presented a card in the name of the South Boston man, at which time she was placed under arrest.

During an inventory of her possessions, police also recovered the man’s bank card and gym membership card. Based on receipts and items in her bags, investigators believed Jemmett purchased an iPhone 5, an Apple TV receiver, a designer tote bag, two 16GB iPads, and two iPad screen protectors on that victim’s credit card. The victim’s wallet, watch, and coat remain missing.

They also recovered a credit card in the name of another man; that card had not been reported stolen, but officers soon learned that it had been used to purchase an Xbox 360, a CD cleaner, two bottles of orange juice, two packages of razors, a copy of Vogue, and $600 in gift cards to various retailers and fast food restaurants.

In the course of his actions that evening, the officer was alerted to a third victim who had been working out at the same gym as the South Boston victim and whose locker had also been burgled. That man’s wallet and iPhone had been stolen, but neither was recovered from Jemmett’s person.

In a post-arrest statement to detectives, Jemmett allegedly said that a man gave her the stolen credit cards. She said knew the man only as “Jack” and described him as a white male who had once been on America’s Most Wanted.

Jemmett, who has a record of shoplifting and receiving stolen property cases ending in convictions or continuances without findings in Natick, Quincy, and Newton, was represented by attorney Joseph Murray. She will return to court on Feb. 7.

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All defendants are presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.