Stillwater Woman Allegedly Ordered Food With Stolen Credit Cards

A Stillwater woman reportedly enjoyed countless pizza dinners and sandwiches on someone else’s dime when she allegedly stole credit card numbers from the Lexington Inn this summer.

Danese Nicole Grant, 26 has been charged by the Washington County Attorney's Office with felony identity theft and felony financial transaction card fraud after three guests at the Lexington Inn found unauthorized charges on their credit card statements.

In July, a New York man contacted the Stillwater Police Department and told officers he had two unexplained charges in the Stillwater area. One charge was to in Stillwater for $23.89 and the other was a Comcast cable bill payment of $118.39 for a residence in the St. Paul area, according to the criminal complaint.

The only connection he had to the area was giving his credit card number to the staff at Lexington Inn, the report states.

Later that month, the Stillwater Police Department received a phone call from a woman in Colorado stating she had several fraudulent charges on her credit card after she reserved a room over the phone with a woman at the Lexington Inn in June, the complaint states.

The transactions were a payment of $337.17 to Comcast cable, $40.65 to Pizza Man, $65.65 to Jimmie John's, $20.40 to Pizza Hut and another charge to Pizza Hut equaling more than $50 dollars, the criminal complaint states.

Her credit card company told her that these purchases were made over the phone and her physical card was not swiped at the businesses.

In August, the Oak Park Heights Police Department spoke with woman who stayed at the hotel earlier in the month and found an unauthorized charge for $13.45 to Jimmie John’s in Oak Park Heights on her credit card.

According to the complaint, the manager of the Lexington Inn told investigators that all the clerks have access to credit card numbers when making reservations over the phone. He also confirmed that Grant made the reservations for one of the individuals that had fraudulent charges on their credit card.

Officers learned that Jimmie John's had made a delivery to the Lexington Inn the same day one of the false charges had occurred. Officers spoke with the delivery driver and he was shown a photo lineup and identified Grant as the person he made the delivery to at the hotel, the complaint states.  

Investigators also discovered one of the charges to Comcast was credited to Grant's account; and order records at Pizza Man revealed the charges in questions were for orders delivered to Grant’s apartment, the complaint states.

If convicted, Grant faces a maximum of five years in prison and $10,000 for each charge.