Credit: Robert Anasch / Unsplash.com
Upper Dublin Police have charged one woman with three felonies in the matter
One Ambler man found his debit card had been unlawfully used to charge over $11,000 after he’d offered to buy breakfast one day for his classroom assistant, police said.
Ariane Janae Pippens, 40, of the 1100 block of East Stafford Street in Philadelphia, is charged with three felonies after police took a deep dive into the bank account of James Hill, according to police reports.
Hill, 74, told Upper Dublin Township Police on Dec. 19, 2023, that he’d noticed fraudulent charges to his PNC bank account. The man, who lives in the Ambler section of Upper Dublin Township, came into the station after he’d discovered the charges on his statement, police said.
According to reports, the Martin Luther King High School teacher offered to buy breakfast on a single date toward the end of September or early October of 2023. To do so, he told police, he’d provided his debit card to his classroom assistant, Pippens in order to pay for the food, later deciding to pay with cash. He had retrieved his card from Pippens the same day, police said.
From Oct. 2 to the Dec. 19 visit to police, Hill had discovered 294 unauthorized charges to his card, totaling $11,151.55. The charges, police reported, included the use of apps such as Cash App, Uber, and UberEats, as well as the grocery delivery service, Instacart.
Police reviewed the statements and found 19 charges via Cash App, totaling $3,958, 102 charges to Uber Technologies totaling $3,180.11, and 12 charges to Instacart, totaling $1,086.46. The total compiled from Hill’s transaction history was 133 charges totaling $8,213.57, according to police.
Many of the payees of the apps were relatives of Pippens or herself, as police reported, including Constance Pippens, Brianna Pippens, and others, police said after researching the account via a search warrant. A Cash App account was found in Pippens’ name with Hill’s debit card number tied to it, police said.
Search warrants provided to Maplebear Inc., the business owners of Instacart, revealed many deliveries to Pippens’ home address in Philadelphia and another, in the 6000 block of North Beechwood Street, also in Philadelphia, belonging to a Timmy Anderson, police reported.
A third search warrant to Uber Technologies provided police with additional accounts registered to Pippens, with Hill’s credit card numbers attached.
Pippens is charged with three felonies, including forgery or an unlawful actin in writing, access to a device issued to another who did not authorize use, and identity theft. She is out after posting an unsecured $5,000 bail after appearing on Aug. 7 for a preliminary arraignment. She is scheduled for a preliminary hearing on Aug. 16 before Magisterial District Judge Douglas H. Lavenberg.
