Aware staff at the 14,000-member, $153 million River City CreditUnion in San Antonio were able to prevent a case of possible fraudand help police capture the alleged identity thief.

“It was a stressful event, but we had assigned everyone in thebranch a role in the event we had the chance to act,” said ChrisHanson, a manager at the Texas credit union's Bitters Branch.“There were no questions about what to do when it happened. We justwent to work, because we knew this person would keep trying tocause losses.”

River City member service specialist Derek Maldonado was thefirst to become suspicious when a new member tried to make awithdrawal against a check they used to open their account andbecame upset when told the credit union places a hold against suchchecks. His concern was validated when the check came back as froman unidentified account and the credit union supposed it would notsee the member again.

But then the member applied for a loan online and this generateda credit report that showed a fraud alert with a verification phonenumber. The person receiving a verification call reported that hisidentity had been stolen, and that he had an active case with theSan Antonio Police Department due to the perpetrator's acts offraud and forgery using his name.

In addition, a new branch staff member joining from anotherlocal financial institution realized that the same person hadcreated a loss for his prior employer, and this information wasreported to SAPD.

Hanson and his team worked out a plan to contact police whilethe perpetrator came in to close on the loan. The individual walkedout of a scheduled loan closing after becoming restless, justmissing the police. He returned unannounced to close on the loan aweek later, and again staff called police. After he walked outagain, a teller noticed him parking across the street to watch thebranch. When police arrived, Hanson pointed out the individual tothem. He was apprehended attempting to flee.

“If we had not discussed this in advance, the arrest could nothave happened so quickly. We all had phone numbers, license plates,and a visual ID on this person,” explained Hanson. “The onlyvariable we had was how this person would respond, but because westayed focused, we were able to put this person behind bars. Nowhis victim has a chance to clear his name.”