Garner police investigate possible credit card scam

GARNER -- The Garner Police Department is investigating a series of items delivered to a Garner home after purchase with stolen credit cards.

Sgt. Chris Clayton, a spokesperson for the department, said no arrests had been made or charges filed in his office's ongoing investigation. He said the department had thus far traced purchases on two stolen cards to the residence of Gabriele Secrest, located at 401 Kentucky Dr.

The first card used in the purchases belongs to Dawn Mcglohon of Rocky Mount, while the second card belongs to Jeremy Ferner of Saginaw, Mich. Clayton said search warrants released yesterday did not identify the purchased items, save that the items Ferner noticed came from a Payless and a Hot Topic.

"It is further reaching than the two people in the affidavit," Clayton said, citing an unspecified amount of additional packages confiscated from all over the country.

Clayton said packages began arriving at Secrest's house July 15. Secrest received the items, he said, and reshipped them after receiving address labels with the intention of reaching an orphanage in Africa. She got the idea, Clayton added, from a man named Rick Manfred she met on Yahoo! messenger.

"People contacted over the internet like this should not get involved in things like this," Clayton said. "It is unfortunately a typical form of scam."