Stolen credit cards fund shopping spree

BANGOR – Two people were arrested late Tuesday evening for allegedly using stolen credit cards during a $3,000 shopping spree at the Bangor Mall.

Crystal Otis, 24, a transient, and Harvey Burgess, 35, of Bangor each were charged with receiving stolen property, a Class C felony. Otis also was charged with Class C burglary after reportedly admitting to police that the credit cards came from a purse that was stolen from a Vine Street woman’s home. Otis remained at Penobscot County Jail on Wednesday night. Burgess was free on bail.

The 76-year-old Vine Street resident noticed that her purse was missing sometime Tuesday evening and called her bank to check for any activity, Bangor police Officer James Dearing wrote in his report.

A bank representative advised her that some of her credit cards had been used that night at Sears, Filene’s, Radio Shack and other stores at the Bangor Mall.

Meanwhile, a mall employee had recognized Otis and Burgess from an incident last weekend in which the couple was suspected of using another stolen credit card, Bangor police Officer Jason McAmbley said. The employee notified police.

“We had a security guard follow them for a while and when I got there, [Burgess] was holding all the merchandise while [Otis] was trying to buy a necklace,” McAmbley said Wednesday.

Police recovered the necklace, valued at $1,000, a $500 Sears gift card and other items worth a total of $3,000.

McAmbley said Bangor police have been chasing Otis for about three weeks on various offenses. When asked why she took the purse, Otis said, “because I was hungry,” Dearing wrote.

Burgess denied any involvement in the burglary, saying Otis left his apartment Tuesday and came back two hours later and said, “Let’s go shopping.” McAmbley said Burgess is a convicted felon.

When Dearing spoke with the Vine Street woman, she told him the purse had been on her kitchen table all day. She said someone could have come into her home and taken it while she was in her back yard.

While Otis admitted to police that she took the purse, she insisted that she did not enter the woman’s house. Otis said the purse was outside the house on a car in the driveway when she took it.

The purse had not been recovered as of Wednesday evening. Otis said she took the cards out of the purse and then threw it in a trash bin near Third and Buck streets.