AUGUSTA, Maine — A New Jersey woman who allegedly tried to access a Wayne woman’s account using an altered passport was arrested after a credit union clerk recognized the name on the passport as a longtime customer, but didn’t recognize the photo.
Lisa Marie Hurley, 61, of Brick, New Jersey, allegedly presented a passport identification card showing her photo and another woman’s name on July 31 at Connected Credit Union on Civic Center Drive in Augusta and inquired about the balance in that woman’s account.
However, the credit union clerk who had worked there 25 years, recognized the name and information on the passport card as that of a longtime customer, who she knew personally. She told police the passport identification card looked real, but the photograph in it belonged to the woman standing in front of her at the credit union, according to an affidavit filed in court by Augusta police officer Jeffrey Stapleton.
Credit union workers tried to delay the suspect, telling her they needed to verify some information, and asked her “security questions” such as the last four digits of her social security number, and her mother’s maiden name. Hurley was able to provide the correct social security numbers on her second try, after initially failing, and initially could not remember her mother’s maiden name, then could not enunciate the name correctly.
Credit union staff confronted Hurley by stating they did not believe she was the woman identified on the passport card, and refused to return the document to her. Hurley allegedly told the workers she didn’t need the passport, and left.
The worker followed the suspect as she walked north. Police located Hurley, with the help of the workers. She first denied doing anything wrong and wouldn’t admit to coming from the credit union. However, after further questioning, Stapleton’s affidavit states, she admitted she went to the credit union and attempted to get money out of an account of a person she didn’t know. She would not tell police how she got the apparently faked passport. She told police she had taken a bus from New Jersey to Augusta and planned on getting enough money out of the account to go back home. She then said she wanted to get $1,000 out.
Hurley was arrested and searched. Inside a small hand bag , police said they found a KeyBank Mastercard in the name of the woman whose name was on the passport.
A Kennebec County grand jury indicted Hurley on a charge of aggravated forgery Oct. 16, a Class B crime punishable by up to 10 years in prison. She is scheduled to be arraigned Nov. 25 at Capital Judicial Center. She is currently being held at Kennebec County jail, on $3,500 cash bail, according to jail records.
An indictment is not a determination of guilt, but it indicates there is enough evidence to proceed with formal charges and a trial.
In a later interview with police, the woman said she came to Augusta with a man she didn’t know, and said they had made several “stops” at banks and she communicated with him through an ear piece. Stapleton’s affidavit said they found an ear piece on the woman. She also said she was being paid $5,000 to do what she was doing, but she had not received the money. Police didn’t respond, Monday or Tuesday, to requests for information on whether there were other victims or additional similar incidents under investigation.
This story was originally published by the Maine Trust for Local News. Keith Edwards can be reached at [email protected].
