Office Manager Arrested in Credit Card Theft

Temp Charged With Forgery, Larceny and Fraud in Purchase of Thousands

The Northern Virginia Transportation Authority is having a bad year. In February, the state Supreme Court junked its taxing authority, taking away $300 million a year in transportation funding and prompting this week's special session in Richmond. Now, an office worker has been arrested for allegedly purchasing thousands of dollars worth of merchandise on the authority's credit card.

Ursula Garcia, an office manager for the authority, was arrested Monday and charged with six counts of credit card forgery, one count of credit card larceny and one count of credit card fraud, according to Fairfax County police spokesman Don Gotthardt. She was released on bond, authorities said. Conviction on a single count of credit card theft could bring up to 20 years in prison.

The purchases were discovered shortly after two flat-screen TVs showed up at the authority's office in Fairfax City in April. Authority Executive Director John Mason said he thought the delivery was a simple error and told Garcia, the office's only other full-time employee, to return them.

"I said, 'Oh, that needs to be sent back. It was mistakenly sent to us.' I just assumed it was a mistaken shipment. I had no reason to think otherwise," Mason said yesterday.

But days later, in mid-April, Virginia Commerce Bank called to point out recent card purchases from Best Buy and Bed, Bath and Beyond, according to court documents. Mason immediately had the card canceled. He said that a total of $12,600 in fraudulent charges had been made on the card.

"In my life, I've never had anything like that [happen]," Mason said. The authority has been getting by with limited state grants while its future funding is hashed out in Richmond.

Mason said Garcia was employed by a temp agency, not the authority, and that no public funds were lost because the bank zeroed out the problem charges. Garcia worked at the authority from early April through June 2.

Some items were initially shipped to the authority's headquarters, "but were subsequently diverted prior to delivery by an employee of United Parcel Service to other locations," according to Fairfax City police Detective Edward C. Vaughan.

The packages were marked "hold for pickup." The UPS clerk "said she had been compensated," the documents said.

UPS spokeswoman Kristen Petrella said the employee, who worked at a customer counter in Alexandria, was fired.

Among the items purchased and shipped in the alleged fraud were Toshiba DVD players, sound systems, a Dirt Devil steam cleaner, a Dell computer and cellphones, according to court documents. A police search of Garcia's residence in the Alexandria section of Fairfax on June 17 found a Toshiba DVD/digital video recorder, two Dell computer systems, cellphones and a boxed DVD player, according to police.

Attempts to reach Garcia were unsuccessful.

Researcher Meg Smith contributed to this report.