OKANOGAN – Okanogan County Sheriff’s deputies have arrested two Oregon residents on charges of credit card fraud and theft.

On Friday, Dec. 21,2018 the Okanogan County Sheriff’s Office arrested Kristin L. Burton, 47, of Cannon Beach, Ore. and Dion P. Gonzales, 51 of Portland, Ore. after a complaint had come in about suspicious activity, according to Sheriff Frank Rogers.

“Deputies located a vehicle in Okanogan and contacted the two occupants. During the investigation it was learned that Burton and Gonzalez had used illegally obtained credit card numbers and then manufactured credit cards with their names imprinted on the cards,” said Rogers in a press release.

The cards used where white in color with no bank name or other markings on the card, Gold “Visa” cards, no bank information or markings, sometimes the Gold card may have had Burton’s or Gonzales name on it but no banking information.

“It should be noted the cards did not have a ‘chip’ requiring them to insert the card into the point of purchase terminal.

“The suspects would swipe the fraudulent cards card until the machine required a manual entry of the credit card number,” said Rogers. “Burton and Gonzalez also made illegal purchases with fraudulent gift cards, silver in color. They would also use the silver gift cards to purchase other gift cards such as gas or an electronic store.”

According to the sheriff’s office the suspects made thousands of dollars’ worth of purchases of merchandise throughout Okanogan County including Twisp, Winthrop, Okanogan, Omak and surrounding counties. The sheriff’s office has high dollar items, tags still attached, and is seeking information from the public where the items may have been purchased. Some of the items appear to have been purchased in Winthrop, Twisp and from pawn shops.

“We know the two had traveled from Oregon and were in the Chelan and Wenatchee area as well as areas over in Western Washington.” said Rogers, adding that he wanted to credit Deputy Jodie Barcus and Deputy Ted Shook for the arrests.

“They did an incredible job figuring all this out when the two suspects stories were not matching. As they continued to investigate, they ended up doing a search warrant on the vehicle which lead to the recovery of the forged documents, illegal credit card and recovered stolen property. It was very good police work,” said the sheriff.
The case is still under investigation and the case because it is getting bigger has been turned over to the detectives at the Sheriff’s Office.

“We are just not sure where else these two have been and detectives will be attempting to locate additional victims. If anyone has information reference Burton or Gonzalez please contact the Okanogan County Sheriff’s Office at 509-422-7232,” Rogers said.

OCSO/submitted photo The vehicle Kristin L. Burton and Dion P. Gonzales are alleged to have traveled in throughout Washington and Oregon. The vehicle has an Oregon license plates with the number 746KWW.