There have been at least six ID thefts. Police are telling people who live in the Waterford subdivision to run credit checks to make sure they are not victims.
The big news from Elgin Police is that two men, believed to be part of this identity theft operation, were arrested in New Jersey Monday night. Police say they found on them the credit information of one of the six victims, but they believe more people are involved, and this remains very much an ongoing investigation.
The first report came in about a month and a half ago. Then, last week, five more residents reported their identities stolen.
Five out of the six are on the same small street in Elgin's Waterford subdivision. Because of this, police are pretty sure that the thieves stole people's mail in order to get to their personal information.
Police have alerted the residents and asked everyone in the area to run their credit to make sure everything is OK. They believe this is a sophisticated operation and multiple people are involved.
"Right now, we are going with the theory that it is an identity theft ring due to the amount of theft and the concentrated area," said Elgin Police Lieutenant Dan O'Shea. "It would be very difficult for one person to steal all the identities and then be as fast as they are at spending all these in different states. So it's probably a ring."
Police said they expect the number of identity thefts in the Waterford subdivision to rise, especially now that everyone has been alerted to what is happening, and they are asking everyone to be on alert for anyone who they don't recognize wandering around, especially near people's mailboxes.
