Couple removed from flight, accused of identity theft

A dropped wallet led to the arrest of two people law enforcement officials have accused of identity theft.

Police said a flight attendant found a wallet on a jet bridge as a flight was boarding in Milwaukee June 6, WISN reported. The wallet contained various cards and IDs with different names on them.

The flight attendant gave the wallet to an airline customer service representative who gave it to a Milwaukee County Sheriff's Office deputy, WITI reported.

The wallet had an ID in it that had the name for Robert Daniel Martin; another identification card had the same photo, but a different name. Debit and credit cards had even more names, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

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Deputies boarded the flight and found Martin, who said his name was John Smith, the same name listed on his boarding pass, the Journal Sentinel reported.

A woman lying across Martin's lap at the time said she did not know him, the newspaper reported.

Police arrested them both. As they disembarked, Martin told the woman, later identified as Dallal Farha, not to say anything since police didn’t have a case on them, according to police.

Police confirmed Martin’s identity by using fingerprints and found that he has several fraud convictions and was on federal probation.

Farha was traveling on a boarding pass with the initials A.M. She had a driver’s license with another name listed, police said. She also had credit and debit cards in other names.

Farha, according to WITI, "has an extensive record for fraud-related crimes" and had two active arrest warrants from Florida at the time of her arrest.

Investigators said the pair also had a notebook with names, birth dates and Social Security cards in it, WISN reported.

The true Smith was contacted by law enforcement officials and said that someone had stolen his identity and ruined his credit, WISN reported.

The Transportation Security Administration was contacted about the security issue and released the following statement to WITI:

"The circumstances surrounding this incident remain under review, and TSA is cooperating with law enforcement on the ongoing investigation. However, all passengers, along with their belongings, are physically screened through a TSA security checkpoint before boarding an aircraft."

Cox Media Group