CALIFORNIA COMPUTER THEFT RING DISCOVEREDRedlands Daily Facts - NewsFriday arrest helps police unravel identity theft ring

By DAVID JAMES HEISS, Staff Writer

REDLANDS - The arrest of a San Bernardino man Friday afternoon has helped Redlands police connect a series of people involved in a crime ring involving identity theft, commercial window burglaries and stolen credit cards.
Allen Rupock Boidya, 28, a citizen of Bangladesh who was staying in a room in San Bernardino, was arrested in Cathedral City at a Comfort Suites hotel on June 24 for possession of stolen property, according to Redlands Police Department Public Information Officer Carl Baker.

Boidya was in possession of forged driver's licenses; stolen credit cards, checkbooks and financial statements; stolen social security cards; and methamphetamines.

A woman, Sara Rose Jepson, 25, of Chino Hills, was arrested at the scene, according to Baker, for also being in possession of forged driver's licenses and stolen credit cards.

On June 16 Redlands Police served a search warrant at Boidya's residence, according to Baker, after tracing stolen credit card purchases back to Boidya.

Police discovered "a number" of laptop computers allegedly stolen from a series of commercial burglaries during which windows of local business were smashed, according to Baker.

According to Baker, Boidya claimed to have "never stolen anything," and that Boidya said that he bought computers and sold them on e-Bay.

A fingerprint on one computer belonged to Michael Gutierrez, 23, who had been arrested May 24 for involvement in those burglaries, to which he admitted to three burglaries, though Baker said "We suspect he was involved in others."

Police sought Gutierrez for questioning after a vehicle check on Orange Tree Lane in May led to the arrest of the driver, Robert Roy Reynolds, 24, who was in possession of burglary tools.

Police were led to a room at the Redlands Motor Lodge, where they located Gutierrez, along with a laptop computer that was proved to be stolen in a May 23 burglary of a business on Business Center Drive.

At the time of his arrest, Gutierrez was in possession of ATM cards and a cell phone stolen during a burglary in Yucaipa.

A stolen ATM card supplied by Gutierrez was used at a Citibank in Redlands, which led police to Casey Stockton Young, 25, of San Bernardino, who was arrested earlier this month in Colton and is on felony probation for carjacking.

Young's photo was captured by a surveillance camera and he was identified after the picture ran in the Daily Facts.

Baker said that police would like to return stolen property of several computers seized during the investigation, including a Sony Vaio laptop and an E-machines tower.
Staff Writer Colleen Mensching contributed to this story.

E-mail Staff Writer David James Heiss at dheiss@redlandsdailyfacts.com