A pair of women will be spending 15 years behind bars for stealing credit cards and using them to go on a shopping spree in Flowood.
Rankin County District Attorney Bubba Bramlett announced on Tuesday that Sylyndrell Pugh and Samantha Wilson will each serve the term in the custody of the Mississippi Department of Corrections for their crimes of identity theft.
On February 17, the Flowood Police Department received a call regarding two females stealing a woman’s purse inside TJ Maxx at the Dogwood Shopping Center. Authorities responded to the scene, obtained a description of the vehicle they were traveling in, quickly located the vehicle, and conducted a traffic stop.
During the traffic stop, officers searched the car and found several items of new merchandise from Belk and Target. They also found purchase receipts, several gift cards, marijuana, and a wallet that did not belong to the suspects. Officers searched Wilson and found a credit card belonging to the victim from TJ Maxx and a driver’s license belonging to another individual. Both females were arrested and taken into custody.
Shortly after the arrests, officers received multiple reports from other victims claiming their wallets were stolen while grocery shopping at Kroger and that their credit cards had been fraudulently used at Belk and Target. Investigators obtained surveillance video and found that the same suspects were responsible for these thefts and fraudulent conduct. Additionally, Flowood investigators found that the receipts, credit cards, and identification information found during the vehicle search belonged to the victims.
“Sylyndrell Pugh and Samantha Wilson are career criminals with a history of fraudulent conduct all over the United States,” Bramlett said. “We applaud the outstanding work of the officers and investigators of the Flowood Police Department. The success of these two cases exemplifies what happens when a community’s citizens, retailers, and businesses work hand in hand with law enforcement.”
