Police: Elgin woman used false identity for nearly a decade

An Elgin woman has been accused of profiting off another's identity for the past decade.

Griselda Alvarez, 40, of the 400 block of Sadler Avenue, was arrested Wednesday.

According to police reports, a woman who resides in Texas filed a report on April 21 with Elgin police that someone was using her personal identity.

The woman said that in 1999 she lost her purse, which contained both her Social Security card and birth certificate.

In 2006 the woman was notified that someone had used her identity at Amtec Precision Products in Elgin.

Since then, she has been notified by various collection agencies of bills that have never been paid.

These include bills from Sherman and Provena St. Joseph hospitals, income taxes that were never paid, and various credit cards with outstanding debt.

According to the report, during the investigation, Elgin police obtained W-2 forms from Amtec from 2001 to 2006, hospital bills and credit card statements totaling more than $100,000.

Alvarez was arrested Wednesday in St. Charles. At the time of the arrest, she was carrying a still-valid driver's license with the victim's name, police said.

According to the police report, Alvarez waived her Miranda rights and admitted to purchasing the woman's identity in 1999 for $700.

She said she had never met the woman whose identity she assumed.

Alvarez was charged with felony identity theft and given a May 19 court date at the Kane County Judicial Center in St. Charles.

Amtec Precision Products was also the workplace of Abelardo Saldivar, a Carpentersville man charged April 27 with identity theft. Like Alvarez, Saldivar is accused of working for several years under a false name.