When Andre Cherkasov reported suspicious fraud activity while working at the Richfield Best Buy over the holidays, he didn't know he might be coming to the rescue of scores of victims of identity theft across the Twin Cities.
Cherkasov was wary when a woman named Linea Palmisano opened a credit card account.
"Just the way she behaved, I kind of knew she was on some kind of a substance," Cherkasov said in a recent interview.
After the woman was approved, she pulled down her mask, and Cherkasov immediately saw her face didn't match the photo on her paperwork. He shared his concerns with Richfield police officer Amanda Johnson, who was working at the store and looked up Palmisano online. Not a match there, either.
Before long, the real Linea Palmisano — a Minneapolis City Council member — received a message asking if she had just opened a credit line at Best Buy. And Johnson soon arrested the fake Palmisano, who turned out to be Emily Gerst, 33, of Minneapolis.
The arrest opened the door to an investigation into a six-month crime spree during which Gerst and Thomas Stoyka, 36, of Minneapolis, allegedly stole the identities of 158 people in the metro area. Each is charged with one count of felony identity theft.