Lodi man pleads guilty in ID theft

A Lodi man was sentenced to five years in state prison on Tuesday after pleading guilty to eight felony counts of identity theft and forgery for a case in which Kohl’s of Lodi and Lodi Waste Management were among the victims.

Roger Hoover, 28, of Lodi, was sentenced at the San Joaquin County Superior Court in Stockton.

In January, Hoover committed identity theft and forgery at F&M Bank on McGaw Street in Stockton when he presented an altered check made out to him for $3,568.47, drawn on the account belonging to a female victim.

On April 6 and 7, the defendant again committed identity theft at the Kohl’s department store in Lodi when he used an altered identification card with a male victim’s personal identification to open a credit card and make purchases totaling $769.

On April 14, the defendant was found in possession of over $20,000 worth of stolen property from a burglary of Lodi Waste Management.

In addition to multiple fake California ID cards, passports, Social Security cards and fake U.S. Marshall’s identification cards, Hoover also possessed fake and washed checks, 22 credit cards in various people’s names, a fake police badge, a box containing 70 blank magnetic strip cards, a card reader, and various tax, bank and other personal identifying information from 19 different people.

Hoover’s five-year prison sentence is a split sentence with 16 months to be served in county jail and the remainder of the sentence to be served on community supervision.

Prosecutor Katherine Mahood offered these basic tips to help others protect themselves from ID theft.

• Don’t put outgoing mail in your mailbox. Drop it off at the post office.

• Record all of your credit card information and how to contact those firms in a safe place at home so you can call and cancel immediately if those cards are lost or stolen.

• Do not provide account information over the phone when a business or government agency calls you. Get your account statement and call the number on the statement.

• Check your credit report twice a year to look for unauthorized activity. Banks typically provide one free report a year.