Financial ID Theft Arrest Made at Home Depot in Suwanee

Gwinnett Police made a financial identity fraud arrest this month in Suwanee that was connected to a stolen credit card number used at several retail locations, police records show.

The process began on Nov. 16 when someone made a purchase by telephone at The Home Depot store on Satellite Boulevard, according to police records. A Home Depot official told police that the corporate office had noted that someone had been making purchases by phone in the name of Blalock Construction at several Home Depot locations. The items were then returned to different stores without a receipt, and the person would receive a gift card for the returned items.

Home Depot corporate then notified stores about what was happening, and stores were told to hold future items purchased under the name Blalock Construction.

The suspect at the Suwanee store that date signed to pick up items under the Blalock name, but then was advised of the stolen credit card number. The suspect said he was not the one who made the purchase.

In the process, a Home Depot officlal in Suwanee checked receipts from other Home Depot stores, and gift-card information found that a driver's license number matched that of the Suwanee suspect, according to police records.

The suspect, Jerome Terrell Nimmons, was handcuffed by police and taken to Gwinnett Detention Center, where warrants were obtained for financial identity fraud and theft by deception. Nimmons still is being held without bond on the identity fraud charge, and charges also include probation violation.

(For questions about this blotter, contact steve.burns@patch.com. Information was obtained from the Gwinnett Police Department. It does not indicate a conviction.)