Woman stole hundreds of dollars to buy Newport cigarettes, cops say

HAMILTON TOWNSHIP - A Chambersburg woman is accused of spending hundreds of dollars of other people's money on cigarettes.

Jessica Marquis Beltre-Perez, 30, is charged with 20 counts of access device fraud and theft by deception, according to online court documents. She is to appear in court for a preliminary hearing on May 23.

According to court documents filed at Magisterial District Judge David Plum's office back in November, Beltre-Perez went to Beverage City and Bill's Kwik Check, located next to each other on Lincoln Way West, on several occasions between March 10 and March 23, 2016, and used cards that were not her own to purchase cigarettes.

The manger of both stores gave video surveillance to police, where they could see two women and two men involved with the transactions. Police were able to identify Beltre-Perez as one of the women involved by comparing her photo to her driver's license photo, according to court documents.

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Police did not identify the other people involved in court documents filed in Beltre-Perez' case.

According to court documents, Beltre-Perez spent about $861.96 on cigarettes using cards she was not authorized to use.

On March 9, Beltre-Perez bought two cartons of Newports, according to court documents.

The next day, Beltre-Perez went into Bill's Kwik Check four different times, each time buying either a carton of Newports or 10 packs of Newports.

On March 15, Beltre-Perez went into each store once, buying 10 packs of Newports from Beverage City and one carton from Bill's Kwik Check.

Finally on March 23, Beltre-Perez went into each store, first buying 20 packs of Newports from Beverage City, then buying one carton of Newports from Bill's Kwik check.

Each purchase was later declined by the banks the cards were from, resulting in a loss for the stores.

After the warrant was filed, Beltre-Perez was listed for months as wanted by the Franklin County Sheriff's Department.

She was finally arraigned on these charges on May 11, and bail was set at $25,000.

Becky Metrick, 717-262-4762