As if a wedding isn’t stressful (or costly) enough.

While an Escondido bride said her “I do’s” last month, someone swiped her wallet, possibly from a dressing room at the Pala Mesa Resort in Fallbrook, authorities said. About a half-hour after the start of the June 7 wedding, her credit cards were being swiped at a gas station down the road.

Over the next few hours, the culprit charged upward of $1,400 on the stolen cards. The bride, Michelle Wilcox Tietz, noticed her wallet missing the following morning.

Now authorities are hoping the public can give the newlywed a belated wedding gift: help identify a woman caught on surveillance video using the cards at a Target in Escondido. The cards were also used at a CVS and an Albertsons in the North County city.


For the bride, seeing the surveillance images added insult to injury: the suspect is holding Tietz’s wallet — a gift from her now-husband — while paying for the goods.

“That made me mad,” Tietz said Tuesday. “That chick, my wallet, my credit cards.”

Authorities are hoping to identify this woman, suspected of using a bride’s stolen credit cards in June. ( / Courtesy San Diego County Sheriff’s Department)

The missing wallet and discovery the cards had been used made for a rough start to the couple’s honeymoon. While on the road, the newlyweds spent the first day making calls to cancel credit cards, reaching out to relatives and contacting authorities.


Sheriff’s Detective Lisa Jenkins, the lead investigator on the case, said via email Tuesday that employees of the resort have been ruled out as suspects. She also said the investigation has linked the suspect to a white SUV, perhaps a Ford Expedition.

Pala Mesa General Manager Kevin Poorbaugh said Tuesday that no one can be certain exactly when the wallet went missing — the idea that it was stolen from the dressing room is only one possibility.

“I have been here 14 years, 80 weddings a year, and this is the first time that something like this has happened,” he said Tuesday. He said a thief would have to be “gutsy” to slip into the dressing room, very near the wedding site.

Tietz said it’s possible the door to the bridal dressing room was left open when she headed out to walk down the aisle. When she returned an hour later, it was ajar, but she did not notice anything out of place.


On Thursday, the sheriff’s detective emailed a surveillance photo of the woman to Tietz, who — with the detective’s permission — posted it on Facebook with a plea for help identifying the stranger with her wallet.

The story quickly spread. Within a day, a local television station picked up on it and others followed. It got a bit of national play with a story on People magazine’s website.

“I do feel really warmed by the community support,” Tietz said. “It’s a good thing. We are making lemonade out of lemons, to a degree.”

Anyone with information about the case can call the Sheriff’s Department at (858) 565-5200, or Crime Stoppers anonymously at (888) 580-8477.