$69,000 WINNER SUSPECTED OF BEING $16,000 THIEF.

Byline: Greg Botonis Staff Writer

Law enforcement officials are asking the public's help in identifying a woman who stole a Lancaster woman's identification and may have used her credit cards in purchasing more than $16,000 worth of merchandise.

Sheriff's deputies obtained a photograph of the suspect after she used the victim's name in winning more than $69,000 on a slot machine in a Las Vegas casino.

The victim, whose identity deputies are withholding, reported her wallet missing on Sept. 4, believing that she had misplaced it at work.

On Sept. 18, deputies informed the woman that someone had made more than $16,000 in charges on her credit cards, which the woman had canceled after her purse disappeared.

Then Palmdale deputies got a call from an official in the Nevada Gaming Control Office, saying that a woman claiming to be the victim had won a jackpot on a slot machine at a casino in Las Vegas on Sept. 12.

Anyone who may recognize the woman is asked to call Agent Gordon Howie of the Nevada Gaming Control Office Enforcement Division at [phone] or the Palmdale Sheriff's Station at [phone].

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PHOTO (color) Palmdale sheriff's deputies are trying to trace this slot machine player, suspected of stealing a Lancaster woman's identification and credit cards.