Troopers bust 3 for fraud

By ANDREW WELLNER

Frontiersman.com

PALMER — With help from a victim and the surveillance tapes at a local store, the Alaska State Troopers’ Crime Suppression Unit was able to track down a trio of credit card fraudsters.

According to court documents Alaska State Trooper Andrew Ballesteros filed in the case against Desiree P. Hacker, 34, James V. Pistro, 33, and Jerad Hacker, 33, all of Wasilla, the investigation began with a call Feb. 27 from a homeowner off of Earl Drive northeast of Wasilla.

The caller said that she’d received word from her bank that someone had been trying to use her credit card. She said she had a new card sent to her because the old one was about to expire, but someone had apparently stolen it from her mail. She’d seen warnings in the neighborhood about mail stolen from the area earlier in the month.

According to Ballesteros’ court filings, charges on the card included $41 at a gas station, $479.16 at Walgreens and $1,866.66 with the ACS phone company. Attempted charges included hundreds of dollars at the Three Bears grocery store on the Palmer-Wasilla Highway.

“I contacted Three Bears grocer and Walgreens, who were able to provide me surveillance videos and photos of three suspects that were seen together in both stores,” Ballesteros writes.

Those three were Pistro and the Hackers. The pickup they were seen leaving in was registered to Pistro.

Two weeks after that credit card report, the loss prevention department at Sports Authority called the Wasilla Police Department to say Desiree Hacker was trying to use a credit card that was being declined. The Crime Suppression Unit had asked Sports Authority to be on the lookout for Hacker.

Ballesteros arrested Hacker and she agreed to talk to him at the Palmer AST post. She told him that she’d gotten the card from a woman named Cheyanne, whose full name she didn’t know.

“Desiree stated that after being denied using the stolen credit card at Three Bears grocery, she returned that card to Cheyanne. Desiree admitted to stealing several clothing items on March 12, 2014 (from Sports Authority),” Ballesteros writes. He said the clothes added up to more than $100.

Pistros was arrested at a traffic stop soon after. He said that he’d driven the Hackers to Three Bears and later picked them up at a different store. He said the Hackers bought new cellphones at ACS and numerous items at Walgreens. He said he then went back to Three Bears with them where the card was denied multiple times and they left.

“He was suspicious that the credit card might be stolen,” Ballesteros writes.

Pistros and the Hackers were all charged with various counts of theft and fraud. All three were jailed at the Mat-Su Pre-Trial Facility. As of Saturday morning, only Pistro had been released, but Jerad Hacker had been transferred to the Goose Creek Correctional Center.

Contact Andrew Wellner at 352-2270 or andrew.wellner@frontiersman.com.