Florida man charged with 11 felonies in connection with identity theft and forgery involving Hilltown woman

A Florida man has been charged with 11 felonies and two misdemeanors in connection with a February 2024 incident in Massachusetts. He is accused of using a fake Pennsylvania driver's license in the name of a Hilltown Township woman to obtain an iPhone in her account. He then used the phone to obtain a debit card in the victim's account and use it to withdraw $16,000.

Michael Charles Crouse, 46, of 9400 Carlton Road, Port St. Lucie, was charged June 27 by Hilltown Township police on two counts each of theft by deception and identity theft, as well as one count each of forgery, criminal use of a communications device, use of an access device issued to another person without authorization, theft by unauthorized receipt, receiving stolen goods, unauthorized use of a computer to interfere with the operation of a device and computer trespass by transfer of funds, court records show.

According to court documents, Crouse is also charged with misdemeanor falsification of records and obtaining documents by deception.

On Jan. 17, 2024, at 1:37 a.m., police received a call from a township woman with a Sellersville mailing address reporting a fraud alert on her TD Bank account, the affidavit states.

According to police, on January 16, 2024, at 5 p.m., Crouse entered the TD Bank branch at 295 Park Avenue in Worcester, Massachusetts, presented a fake Pennsylvania driver's license in the name of the victim's husband, and then obtained a debit card in the husband's name.

Crouse, police allege, then used the debit card to withdraw $16,000 from the victim's two checking accounts.

Before the scam alert, the victim received a text message from an AT&T number belonging to her husband, according to the affidavit. The person who sent the victim the message asked for access to a third TD bank account, police said.

The victim called AT&T and learned that a man had entered a store in Worcester, Massachusetts, and presented a driver's license in the name of the victim's husband, police said. A new phone was then activated under the victim's AT&T account, with the newly activated phone assigned the victim's husband's number, the complaint states.

Police served a search warrant for TD Bank that included surveillance footage from the Massachusetts branch during the cash withdrawal, police said. Still images of Crouse were distributed through a law enforcement email listserv, and three law enforcement agencies identified Crouse from a photo from his arrest in Florida, police said: a Tredyffrin Township detective, a Montgomery County crime analyst and an analyst with the Middle Atlantic-Great Lakes Organized Crime Law Enforcement Network.