Montgomery Township Police Photo by James Short.
A 52-year-old woman with no fixed address faces felony charges of use of a counterfeit access device, forgery, and identity theft for using a fake driver’s license and the identity of a 65-year-old woman to attempt to access $2,000 from the victim’s credit union account.
Montgomery Township Police have also charged Gail Espinosa Pflugbeil with misdemeanor charges of theft by unlawful taking, receiving stolen property, and theft by deception for a June 21 incident at TruMark Financial Credit Union, 1200 Welsh Road.
Police were called to the credit union at 5:37 p.m. for a hold up alarm. Upon arrival, police were told by a branch manager that Pflugbeil was attempting to withdraw $2,000 with a counterfeit license, according to the affidavit.
Furthermore, police allege, the manager had received an email about the account Pflugbeil was trying to access after similar attempts were made at the Doylestown, Warrington, and Horsham branches.
Police were shown a copy of a Virginia driver’s license matching the name of a woman who signed a credit union shared branching transaction voucher, that was not Pflugbeil’s name.
When police checked the license in their system, it came back with a different photograph than what was on the license, police said.
When Pflugbeil was confronted with the information, she gave police her real name, according to the report. She was taken into custody and a search of her purse found a Visa debit card issued to the 65-year-old victim and not Pflugbeil, police said.
Both the counterfeit license and the debit card were seized by police.
Police said Pflugbeil waived her Miranda rights at the station.
During an interview, police allege, Pflugbeil admitted that she was dropped off at the bank and attempted to withdraw money from an account that did not belong to her. She also told police she knew her actions were wrong, but she is homeless and was trying to get money, police said.
When contacted by police, the identity theft victim told them no one should have any ID with her information and no one was authorized to make withdrawals from her account, per the affidavit.
Pflugbeil was released on $25,000 unsecured bail set by Magisterial District Judge Edward C. Kropp Sr. at arraignment, per court records.
A preliminary hearing is scheduled for July 9 at 9:15 a.m. before Magisterial District Judge Andrea Duffy.
