The following news release was sent by the Chandler Police Dept.:

CHANDLER – On October 12, 2008 at approximately 4:00 PM, Chandler Police responded to the Wal-Mart, located at 1175 S. Arizona Ave, in regard to a fraud investigation.  Wal-Mart reported three men purchased a lap top computer then returned with an empty box claiming a laptop was never in the box.  Thinking the men were attempting to defraud the store of a computer, Wal-Mart called the police.  Upon police arrival, one of the suspects fled on foot.  During the chase, the suspect threw credit cards to the ground.  Once taken into custody, police recovered the discarded credit cards and determined the credit cards were forgeries. 

Suspects accused of buying electronics at Valley Wal-Mart with fraudulent credit cards.

Continued investigation revealed the suspects had 19 forged credit cards, which they had used to purchase various electronic items from different Wal-Mart stores in the Valley.  The suspect’s vehicle contained the various electronic items fraudulently purchased.  The suspects are Mexican Nationals and explained they came to the United States for the sole purpose of using the forged credit cards to purchase items.  The counterfeit credit cards were encoded with valid stolen credit card numbers.  The investigation is on going to identify the account holders of the stolen credit card numbers. 

The suspects are identified as Adolfo Paz Gracia, a thirty five year-old Mexican National, Javier Carreno Cruz, a twenty nine year-old Mexican National, and Jose Diaz Valenzuela a twenty nine year-old Mexican National.  Each suspect was booked into the Maricopa County jail for 3 counts of forgery and with one count of fraud schemes.  It was later determined Wal-Mart had given the suspects an empty computer lap top box by mistake.