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ID Theft Can Go Deeper Than Credit Card Theft

DENVER (CBS4) ― When identity theft is talked about, people stealing credit cards and spending money is what comes to mind. But seven out of every 10 cases of identity theft don't involve credit cards. Instead, they involve other aspects of life, including criminal and mortgage records.

Both Charlie Weidman and Anita Jantz found out about that kind of identity theft -- the hard way.

To see Charlie Weidman on the street, you would never guess that he's been wanted in three states. In fact, he hardly believes it himself.

"I'm armed and dangerous in one state," he laughed, shaking his head.

But it wasn't a laughing matter when Charlie, his fiancée and two children tried to get back into the United Sates after a vacation in Mexico. "Not so fast," said the immigration authorities.

"They carted me off to a small room," Charlie remembered. "And I told them the person they wanted wasn't me, but I was still very nervous."

In fact, immigration was looking for a man named Hugh Pettifield. Charlie had lost his wallet back in the mid-80s. He never gave the loss another thought. But by the early 1990s, Pettifield had started using Charlie's identity, usually when he got in trouble with the law or injured in a bar fight. After Charlie straightened out his identity problems with immigration authorities, he started investigating and learned that, from the east coast to the west coast, Pettifield had lived quite a rough life with Charlie's name.

"I've had fractured ribs, I've had head injuries, I've had all sorts of hospital tests," Charlie told us. "It was interesting to find out about the other me."

But because the real Pettifield has been arrested and failed to appear in court, the real Charlie has also had a very tough time proving he is not the criminal using his name. Now, even a routine traffic stop could turn into a nightmare according to Charlie.

"You're not just taken in nicely because they're worried you have a gun," he said.

Anita Jantz didn't need to be considered armed and dangerous to get into trouble. Peacefully painting in her home, and surrounded by her own watercolors on the walls, Anita had no idea that another woman named Anita had gotten hold of her social security number and gone shopping for houses.

"She bought four houses and acquired six mortgages in my name with my identity," said Anita ruefully. "Six mortgages that added up to nearly $1 million!"

At first, Anita tried to get matters straightened out on her own. She called the credit bureaus expecting help.

"I thought they would say, 'Oh, this is fraud, we'll help you.' Instead, it took days and days just to even talk to a real person," Anita said.

Next Anita took her mortgage morass to the mortgage companies. But by that time the original companies had sold the mortgages and then those companies had sold the mortgages again. Meanwhile, her imposter wasn't paying on the debt and, as a result, Anita's credit score had collapsed.

Police eventually arrested another woman named Anita who had obtained the real Anita Jantz's social security number from an unscrupulous mortgage broker. That Anita, who had driver's licenses in several states under different names by the time authorities caught up with her, went to prison. But Anita kept receiving letters from collection agencies. Her credit had already been ruined -- unless she could get the unpaid mortgages for all those houses off her credit reports.

"You feel like a victim," said Anita and then, after a brief pause, she added with even greater conviction, "I am a victim."

And that's where the stories of Charlie Weidman and Anita Jantz converge. Both spent hundreds of hours trying to regain their true identities, and neither succeeded until they connected with one company that just happened to be right in Denver.

Read full continuing story: Colorado Company Makes Unusual ID Theft Pledge

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