Two people face charges after they attempted to buy iPhones with fraudulent credit cards from the Verizon store in Mahoning Township.

Rahsean Jackson, 30, of the Bronx, New York, and Jessica Walter, 34, of Berwick, were both taken into custody Thursday afternoon.According to the affidavit of probable cause filed by Mahoning Township Police Chief Audie Mertz, he was dispatched to the Verizon store in the Carbon Plaza parking lot at 1:31 p.m., where Verizon workers reported that a woman was attempting to buy multiple iPhones with multiple credit cards.When Mertz entered the store, employees pointed to the customer, who began to walk at a fast pace toward the exit. Mertz asked the woman to stop, but she ran across the lot and got in the driver’s seat of a Toyota Yaris with a Texas registration. She had a wallet and phone in her hand as she ran.As Mertz approached, the woman, identified as Walter, shouted to the front-seat passenger, who got out of the car. Mertz grabbed the man, identified as Jackson, and told him to stop, but he pulled away and ran from him. Mertz placed Walter in custody while she was in the car. The wallet and phone she had in her hand were thrown onto the passenger seat.Mertz detected an odor of marijuana inside the car.Mertz checked the wallet for identification, and found numerous credit cards of the same brand, in addition to a photo ID with Walter’s name on it. Mertz had the car towed to the police station for processing.Verizon employees told Mertz that Walter had made purchases of phones at other Verizon stores using fraudulent credit cards. The Lehighton Verizon store had received a picture of Walter from the Mount Pocono store.Fake cardsJackson was caught a short distance from the store by officer Amie Barclay of Mahoning Township, officer Gabe Szozda of Lehighton, and Detective Lee Marzen of Jim Thorpe, who was off duty.Jackson had a wallet and an iPhone on him when he was caught. The wallet had five counterfeit credit cards, with different account numbers stamped on them in the name Jessica Walter. The cards were checked and there were no accounts in her name.Jackson had a forged Pennsylvania driver’s license in her name with a photograph of a woman who was not Walter.The license purported to have a Berwick address with Walter’s date of birth. There were three gift cards labeled

visa.gowallet.com. One of these cards was used to purchase MoneyGram orders from Walmart, the same MoneyGrams found during the search of the car.Jackson said that he met Walter online and that she picked him up at the Knights Inn. They drove around for a bit and that when he saw the police, he ran.Jackson did not say how the fake ID and five blank credit cards got into his wallet, but said that Walter must have put them in there when he was in the car.More counterfeit cardsJackson got irritated and refused to speak.A search warrant on the vehicle turned up a single packet of suspected heroin on the passenger door stamped “SKY.” An empty cigarette pack contained two additional counterfeit cards in Walter’s name and three packets of rolling papers.Jackson’s jacket on the rear passenger seat contained two MoneyGram orders in the amount of $498 each with receipts from the Lehighton Walmart at 1:25 p.m. Thursday.Documents from Virginia belonging to Jackson dated Feb. 14 were found on the front seat, as were three Visa Gift cards in a Hallmark bag.Inside Walter’s purse, Mertz found a New York state driver’s license with her picture identifying her as Aryaa Hemant Achrekar of Astoria, New York. a receipt from a Bloomsburg Verizon store dated Feb. 27, a Samsung Tablet, a grinder with suspected marijuana residue, and business cards from Verizon stores from Nazareth Highway, Easton; Shenandoah; Scranton; Pottsville; Palmer Park Mall, Easton; Secaucus, New Jersey; Mount Pocono; and Berwick, as well as a board of probation parole letter in Walter’s name.Mertz also found three counterfeit access device cards in the name of Jessica Walter. The cards were checked and they contained no accounts in the name of Jessica Walter.There was a business card for the Verizon store in East Stroudsburg, and a receipt from Subway in Secaucus, New Jersey, dated March 1.Also, two iPhones were found on the front seat of the car; Jackson identified one as his, and the other, as Walters’.A receipt from the Port Authority dated Feb. 28 was found on the floor; a Verizon receipt for Walter from the Shenandoah Verizon store dated Feb. 26; and a receipt in the glovebox dated Feb. 22 from a store in New York, New York, in Jackson’s name.Mertz then spoke with Walter, who said she obtains the cards from a man in New York who makes them, and that she has seen him use the card-making machine and knows its location.Mertz spoke with Jackson, who said he has a heroin habit, and had no knowledge of the cards in his wallet. He denied knowing how they got there, and said the three gift cards in his possession were obtained from girlfriends, and he used them to buy the MoneyGram orders to fund his drug habit.While searching the trunk, Mertz found a black purse, which Jackson said was in there when he picked the rental up, and he was going to return it but didn’t get to yet. The purse did not appear connected to the theft.Jackson faces charges on 11 counts of criminal conspiracy, identity theft; 11 counts of access device fraud; and one count each of forgery; criminal conspiracy - forgery; identity theft; criminal conspiracy - identity theft; and unlawful possession of a controlled substance.Walter faces charges on 11 counts of criminal conspiracy - identity theft; 11 counts of credit cards - access device fraud; three counts of identity theft; two counts of forgery; and one count each of criminal conspiracy - forgery; criminal conspiracy - identity theft; and possession of drug paraphernalia.They are both lodged in the Carbon County Correctional Facility in lieu of $75,000 straight bail.