The Washoe County Sheriff's Office says a California man was arrested for embezzlement, identity theft and a fake credit card lab.
Officials said 39-year-old John Lain is charged with eleven felony counts, including: obtaining and using personal identifying information of another, obtaining or possessing credit or debit card without consent of the cardholder, possessing a financial forgery laboratory, and drug trafficking.
They said his arrested was the culmination of a seven-month long crime spree spanning Washoe County, Reno, Sparks, Susanville and Truckee.
Detectives first began investigating the embezzlement of four electric mountain bikes from a local outdoor equipment store in Galena in July. Bikes were rented and never returned. Three weeks after in early August, a Washoe County resident said her credit card was used fraudulently at a large sporting goods retailer in Sparks, but the victim still had her card on her. The sporting goods store's loss prevention department provided information that over the course of two months, store employees tracked nine internal reports tied to the fraudulent credit card activity.
Officials said ten days after the Sparks purchase, two electric mountain bikes were embezzled from a sporting goods store in Truckee. The name associated with the rental was the name of a victim whos wallet was stolen in Susanville in February.
Lain was identified as a suspect and was known to stay at a casino/resort in the 3800 block of South Virginia Street in Reno. Deputies located Lain in the hotel and arrested him.
Hotel security began the eviction process of Lain's room and they found evidence of illegal activity. Detectives seized 47 items which were consistent with drug trafficking and financial forgery, including:
- mechanical embosser
- magnetic card reader/encoder
- 16 fraudulent credit cards
- bike tube and repair kit
- drug paraphernalia
(The Washoe County Sheriff's Office contributed to this report).
