HOUSTON -- A man accused of sneaking into workplaces across Houston to steal driver’s licenses and debit cards from employees was arrested a few weeks ago, police said.
Houston police say Michael Hanson, 40, was pulling off crimes that had them scratching their heads for months.
Dressed in business-casual attire, Hanson roamed office floors inside buildings across Houston, police said. HPD's Financial Crimes Division investigators said at many of the places there were multiple victims.
"It was devastating," said Sherry Quiggles, who claims to be a victim of Hanson's. "We were in a secured building where you have to have badges to come in and out. Well, the workers had to have badges apparently, the criminals don’t have to have badges."
Bill Neely, a property tax expert, said he didn't realize anything was missing from his briefcase until his bank called him at home during dinner.
"He got $1,800 the first time, and he came back an hour later and tried to hit my savings account," Neely said.
The teller at Neely's bank became suspicious and questioned the suspect, so he just sped off, Neely said.
Hanson's crime spree finally came to an end during a routine traffic stop, police said. That's when police said they discovered dozens of credit cards in his car. After officers began to question Hanson, he confessed and told detectives a whole lot more about the crimes, police said.
Hanson told investigators most of his victims were women and that he would take their identification, go to their bank's drive-through windows and disguise his voice as a woman.
His car had tinted windows and he always picked banks that didn't have a lot of surveillance cameras, police said. Hanson told the tellers he didn't have his account number, but nine times out of 10, the tellers gave him money anyway, investigators said.
Quiggles said she thinks the banks should hire Hanson one day.
"Obviously the tellers need a lot more education," she said.
Quiggles said she has learned a lesson from the incident.
"I have my purse locked up in a drawer at work," she said.
She also advised people to not be embarrassed to stop a stranger found roaming the halls inside a workplace.
