This is Anna's story of how she ended up with arrest warrants because she had her identity stolen. It caused her a lot of time, trouble and money and she wishes that she had made regular checks to make sure that there were no warrants out for her. Find out how you can avoid this situation.
Why were the police knocking on Anna Wallis's door in the middle of the night?
Anna Wallis is an IT technician in a department store. She's good at her job and she runs around all day long fighting with computer bugs and keeping the stock control database up to date. It's a high pressure job but she loves it and wouldn't have it any other way. Anna has never been in trouble with the police before so why did the cops come for her in the middle of the night? They knocked so hard that she thought they were going to break the door down.
You can get your identity stolen so very easily
Anna won't remember this now but it happened more than 2 years earlier. She often takes her lunch into a nearby park to get away from the stress of the office for an hour and one day she left her purse on the bench where she sat to eat. Only a few minutes had past before she realized what she had done and went back for her purse right away.
She was so relieved to find that the purse was still there,
exactly where she left it. A quick check of the contents revealed that nothing had been stolen so Anna was happy and felt very lucky to get her purse back. But what has this got to do with the police at her door 2 years later?
She didn't know it but a thief had stolen Anna's identity from her purse as it sat alone on that park bench. Her credit card numbers, her address, her drivers licence details and other information had been quickly copied and Anna never knew that it had happened. The thief took less than 3 minutes to steal Anna's identity.
Has your identity double got you into trouble with the police?
You might expect that if someone steals your identity then they will use it to make some instant money. Go on a spending spree with your credit cards, rent a car in your name and take out a huge loan for you to pay back. This isn't always the reason that a thief might want to steal your life.
In Anna's case the thief had been saving her identity for a special occasion. Something more important than a quick spending spree. This thief had been planning a big robbery and had been arrested as she left the scene. Unfortunately the police had no real evidence to suggest that they had caught the right person. The thief was too good to be caught in the act or with the stolen goods on her so she was let free on bail.
The thief had used Anna's identity when she was arrested. This was why she stole it from her in the first place, to use as a contingency plan. When the thief failed to return to court a bench warrant was issued for Anna, not the thief.
This story is made up. It never happened but it could happen and it could happen to you.
The cops can arrest you any time they want if you have a warrant for arrest
The police don't have the time to go after everyone the moment that an arrest warrant is issued. Depending on the severity of the crime it could be months or even years before they get around to you. Very often they will just wait until they pull you in for something else like a speeding ticket or jumping a red light. They will do a check on you then and find the warrant.
Sooner or later they will catch up with you and if they have to they will search you out and knock on your door.
Don't wait for the knock at the door. Find out about warrants for arrest now
Whether you committed the crime or not, when you get to court you will most likely be treated far more favorably if you give yourself up voluntarily instead of being dragged there by the police. But how do you deal with a warrant if you didn't know that you have one in the first place?
Do regular background checks on yourself
It's easy to do a regular background check on yourself using an online public records database. It can take less than 5 minutes to check yourself out and make sure that you don't have any warrants or other problems that you need to deal with. By doing this you can stay one step ahead of the police and deal with arrest warrants before they become a major problem for you.
