SAN ANTONIO — A man has been arrested after investigators with the San Antonio Police Department uncovered he had allegedly stolen a 65-year-old man's identity and was "living in the victim's name."
A Guadalupe County 65-year-old man was notified by debt collectors that he owned a large amount of money for purchases that he had no recollection of. He then went to county authorities for help and through their investigation, they were able to get an idea of who the suspect might be and then handed the case over to SAPD for further assistance.
The first step investigators took was to visit the suspect at the apartment complex he reportedly lived at. Upon arrival, officials spoke with apartment managers asking if they could speak to the suspect, William Richard Holliday, 54. The manager said they did not have anyone under that name living in the complex but were able to give police the name of the person living in that particular apartment they were asking to go to.
To their surprise, the name attached to the apartment in question was the same name of the 65-year-old victim.
A little while later, authorities said Holliday was arrested on separate warrants during a traffic stop. When police looked back at the bodycam footage, they ran the license plate number and realized Holliday was driving a 2021 white Mercedes-Benz that was registered under the victim's name.
This caused detectives to go to the dealership where the vehicle was purchased to find out how Holliday was able to buy it using the victim's identity.
The dealership provided detectives with all the paperwork attached to the purchase of the vehicle and they found that Holliday had given the dealership a driver's license with his photo but the victim's name.
On Friday, Aug. 2, authorities were able to get an identifying location on Holliday and trailed him until he stopped at a local grocery store. While he was inside, SAPD said Holliday bought groceries using a credit card under the victim's name.
When Holliday left the store, police were able to arrest him.
In total, SAPD said they believe Holliday has 66 fraudulent accounts tied to just this one victim and the root cause of how this started was the victim's mail somehow got in the hands of Holliday.
Holliday is facing the following charges:
- Unauthorized use of motor vehicle
- Credit card abuse
- Fraudulent use of identifying information
- False statement to obtain property
- Tampering with government record with intent to harm or defraud
- Exploitation of elderly
This is an ongoing investigation. KENS 5 will update this story as more information becomes available.