Victim’s account overdrawn
Nichole L. Wetzel, 33, New London, is charged with misappropriating an identity, bank card theft and two counts of bank card fraud.
In December 2017, Sgt. Earl Ruckdashel, with the New London Police Department, met with a man who reported unauthorized withdrawals from his bank card.
He said he keeps his bank card in his wallet, which he wears on a lanyard around his neck.
The man said two friends – identified as Wetzel and her boyfriend – had stayed late at his home on Saturday, Dec. 16, 2017.
According to the criminal complaint, he fell asleep in his wheelchair and when he woke up, his friends were gone. He later discovered his bank card was missing.
On Sunday Dec. 17, 2017, two withdrawals were made from the drive-up ATM at First State Bank.
The withdrawals, totaling $120, caused his account to be overdrawn, the complaint says.
Ruckdashel subsequently reviewed security video from the bank. It shows a brown Pontiac drive up to the ATM at 2:15 p.m. and a woman with a bracelet tattoo on her left wrist and long fingernails make two withdrawals minutes apart.
Police later located Wetzel’s brown Pontiac at the address on Jennings Street in New London where she and her boyfriend live.
Ruckdashel spoke with Wetzel and her boyfriend. They denied ever using the debt card without the owner’s permission.
They also said they had been in Clintonville on Dec. 17.
“I said I had their vehicle on video pulling up to the ATM,” Ruckdashel reported. “They denied it was their car because I did not have a plate number. Nichole also said that it was not her as I did not have any video of faces on the security footage. She said she already talked to (victim) and he told her that the bank did not have faces on the video.”
Wetzel is scheduled for an initial court appearance on April 23.