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Man charged for stealing credit card, using it, and forging the owner's signature

American Samoa District Court building
reporters@samoanews.com

Pago Pago, AMERICAN SAMOA — Bail is set at $10,000 for a man accused of stealing a woman's credit card and then using it at a local gas station.

David McFall appeared in District Court yesterday morning on an arrest warrant. He is charged with stealing, forgery, and fraudulent use of a credit device — all felonies.

According to the government's case, on Aug. 11, 2016 a female employee at the WIC office had left her wallet in her desk, and her iPad charging on top of her desk.

She didn't realize both items were missing until later that morning. The victim contacted her credit card company off island and was told that $60 had been charged to her card from a gas station in Pava'ia'i.

An attendant at the gas station told investigators that he had swiped a credit card for $60 total — $20 for gas and $40 cash back — on the day in question. A signed copy of the credit card transaction was given to police.

The man described the person who used the credit card, as a "tall, light-skinned male with a bald head" and he had arrived in a white taxi. He also told police that the first credit card presented by the culprit did not have any money in it.

Police were able to speak to another gas station attendant who knew the taxi driver by name.

When interviewed by police, the cab driver said he picked up a passenger in Utulei that morning. He said the man was a former taxi driver named Tavita but he didn't know his last name.

The driver told police that he drove Tavita to a gas station, then to a store in Futiga, and later dropped him off at a laundromat in Vaitogi.

Investigators searched OMV records for all drivers with the first name Tavita. The taxi driver didn't recognize any of them as being his passenger. When a search was conducted for drivers named David, the cabbie identified David McFall as his passenger.

Officers went looking for McFall but couldn't locate him, until they got a tip that McFall was walking to the TV station. Police found him on the road behind the Fale Laumei.

An officer approached McFall and asked him to come with them to the DPS Central Station but McFall "attempted to flee and a struggle ensued," according to the arrest warrant. During the struggle, McFall "dropped a glass pipe, a piece of drug paraphernalia, on the ground, which broke," according to the government's case.

When questioned by police, McFall allegedly admitted that he had gone to bum a cigarette from someone on the day in question, and he ended up stealing the credit card and the iPad. He said he "only used $60 at the gas station and apologized."

According to Immigration, McFall's ID expired Dec. 10, 2018

A preliminary examination is set for April 18th at 3 p.m.

McFall is represented by Assistant Public Defender Anna Whiles while prosecuting the case is Assistant Attorney General Christy Dunn.