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WEST SACRAMENTO-

Crime can happen to anyone, at any time.

A victim, who wants to remain anonymous, had her driver’s license, ATM, and three credit cards stolen from her purse while she was at work on Monday, February 4.

According to her, there were visitors at her job that day and she recalled seeing one near her purse, but she didn’t realize a crime had happened until later that day. It wasn’t luck that she caught the crime, but diligence.

“I check my credit card and ATM statements every single day online,” she said, “So at about 6:00pm I did my ritual of checking online. I noticed immediately on my ATM that there were four charges that were not mine.”

She then checked her credit cards, and there were more charges. After that she went to her purse, “That’s when I realized my cards were gone.”

The theft was reported to West Sacramento Police the day it happened, February 4; two days later she went to work.

Since all of the fraudulent charges were made at West Sacramento stores, like the Walgreens on West Capitol Avenue and Ebony Beauty Supply, our victim went to see if she could find any evidence. Both stores had surveillance video and she watched it, then she recognized who it was.

“(It wasn’t) the actual person who stole the cards, but someone related,” she said. “(On the video) I saw that person coming up to the register pulling out my card and signing my name.”

That information was also turned over to police; seemingly handing them a solved case.

“I assumed this would immediately go to a detective and (I) expected an arrest,” she said.

It’s been five weeks since the crime was reported and there still hasn’t been an arrest. Our victim is frustrated, “I thought ‘this is a slam dunk’.”

To find out what was taking so long, FOX40 called West Sacramento Police and the Yolo County District Attorney’s Office, but because the case is on-going, they couldn`t comment.

To explain how the investigation and legal process works and how long it takes, FOX40 spoke with former Sacramento County Sheriff John McGinness and former Shasta County District Attorney McGregor Scott. They explained before an arrest can be made in a case like this, evidence has to be gathered and verified, suspects have to be interviewed, then the information has to be turned over to the DA’s Office who would issue an arrest warrant.

And for a district attorney to actually issue an arrest warrant, Scott said certain standards have to be met, including “a reasonable belief that you can prove the case beyond a reasonable doubt to a unanimous jury.”

Both Scott and McGinness said the time frame for this case is reasonable, and if it seems long, blame TV. “It’s what we often referred to in my DA days as the ‘CSI-effect’,” said Scott, “A crime is committed,  a crime gets solved, a crime gets charged and someone gets convicted in one hour, and that’s just not the real world.”

Another delay in investigating a case is budget cuts; one detective may have more than 30 cases to investigate. There’s another road block, cases are not investigated in the order they’re received.

“It’s triage just like in an emergency room,” McGinness explains, “If somebody comes into an ER on a busy night with non-life threatening injuries, they’re going to be uncomfortable for a while.”

A look at West Sacramento’s crime map from the last five weeks shows that over 150 crimes have happened. Thefts and larceny make up the biggest chunk of crimes, which is where our victim falls. Along with those crimes, police are still dealing with previous cases as well.

While our victim understands the limitations, she’s worried that she could be a victim for the rest of her life, “They still have my identification. I don’t know if that’s going to be sold to somebody else or open online checking accounts.”

So does the legal process take too long?

McGinness said, “The concept of ‘do more with less’ has been around for a while and frankly at some point less is going to have to be accepted.”

As for our victim she expected more, “I do the right things; I pay my taxes, I follow the laws, I work. Always thought that if something bad happened to me, somebody would come to my rescue.”

If a credit card is stolen they should be canceled as soon as possible, and a fraud alert can be made to a credit reporting agency like Experian or Equifax, however the alert only lasts for three months.