AVENTURA, Fla – Police arrested two women on Monday at the Aventura Mall, accusing of them trying to buy thousand of dollars' worth of designer goods with stolen credit cards.
Aventura police said Danielle Vecchio, 31, of Hollywood and Pamela Williams, 52, of Miami Gardens recently stole five credit cards from a Sunny Isles Beach woman. Vecchio used one of the cards about 4:30 p.m. on Monday to buy two pairs of sunglasses valued at $1,400 at the mall's Bloomingdale's store, police said.
Police said Vecchio left the store and joined Williams, who was waiting inside a car in the mall's parking lot. But, officers said, they were waiting for the pair as they tried to leave the mall, having been tipped off by an earlier attempt to use the stolen credit cards.
An hour earlier, officers said, Vecchio had attempted to buy a designer handbag for $4,800 at the mall's Nordstrom store. When she used one of the stolen cards to pay, the transaction was declined, police said. She tried again with another card, which was also declined.
The failed purchase triggered an alert, and the credit card company contacted the victim, who in turn contacted the Aventura Police Department.
Aventura police said that Vecchio and Williams had planned to resell the items that they purchased with the stolen cards. Police said they found five credit cards belonging to the victim when they arrested Vecchio and Willaims.
Vecchio is currently being held on $82,000 bond at the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center in Miami. Williams was released on bond. According to court records, both Vecchio and Williams face multiple charges of credit card fraud and theft in addition to the Aventura Mall case.