By Bonnie Culverhouse
A case of stolen debit/credit cards was solved by Webster Parish deputies and Dixie Inn police with the arrest of a local woman.
Harli Leighann Rushing, 26, of the 100 block of Country Lane, Minden, was arrested by WPSO on two active warrants – one through Dixie Inn Police and one through WPSO for access fraud and resisting an officer by giving a false name. Her bond is $25,000.
Sheriff Jason Parker said Deputy Michael Dickey located Rushing at her residence Monday evening where she gave them a false name.
“They compared her driver’s license picture with a photo they had of Rushing,” Parker said. “She continued to deny she was Rushing, but after talking with her boyfriend, it was confirmed she was indeed Rushing.”
Nancy Staats, a Shreveport woman who used a cleaning service said Rushing was sent to her house recently and allegedly took her Bossier Federal debit card, two credit cards and a family member’s out-of-date debit card, which were on a table.
“I didn’t even know they were missing until (the next) morning when I got a call from Bossier Federal’s fraud department asking if I had used my debit card to charge $48.82 worth of gas at the Exxon Station in Dixie Inn,” Staats said. “I explained I hadn’t used that card for months, which is how it came to be with the other cards on an end table next to our loveseat. I read an article that said you should take the cards you don’t use out of your wallet so they won’t get stolen.”
Shane Scott, owner of the cleaning service, said Rushing had been on her radar for a while.
“I believe she has stolen from other clients,” Scott said. “I try not to hire anybody if someone I know can’t recommend them. I began to hear things were missing, so I moved Harli mostly to houses that were empty.”
However, Staats and her husband were home when Rushing lifted the cards.
From 4:30 p.m. one day to 8:30 a.m. the next, Rushing allegedly purchased around $500 on Staats’ cards.
Staats filed a report with Dixie Inn Police Chief Alan Davis after taking other steps to dispute 10 more charges.
“The spree went through Shreveport, Bossier and Dixie Inn, and according to Chief Davis, mine wasn’t the only ‘instrument theft’ she was wanted for in Webster,” Staats added.
“It’s important for people to understand, there is a bypass function on credit/debit card machines,” she continued. “By pressing a certain button, the machine will bypass a PIN requirement.”
This information has been provided by a law enforcement agency as public information. Persons named as suspects in a criminal investigation, or arrested and charged with a crime, have not been convicted of any criminal offense and are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.
