Terrified by Criminal Identity Theft:

Thelma Wiloch panics when she hears a knock on her door.

“I am afraid to open the door, thinking it could be the police coming to get me for a crime the other woman committed,” a nervous Wiloch said recently, sitting at the kitchen table in her Balsam Street home.

The “other woman” is someone authorities say identified herself as Thelma Wiloch when DeLand police arrested her in August 2007.

That Thelma Wiloch was caught stealing ribeye steaks at a Winn-Dixie and charged with retail theft. She gave her address as 290 Dogwood Ave., Orange City, spent 10 days in jail for the crime and racked up a $193 fine, which she has not paid.

But when the bill went to the court’s collections department, it was sent to Thelma Wiloch at 182 Balsam St., Deltona, on Jan. 7.

“I was in the hospital for spinal surgery and when I come home I find this scary letter,” Wiloch said. “The letter said that if I don’t pay the fine they will put out a warrant for my arrest or they will suspend my driver’s license.”

Wiloch said now she is afraid to even go to the grocery store or leave her home because she fears being pulled over and arrested.

See the full report at news-journalonline.com.