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ID Theft Raid Results In Arrests

POSTED: 5:04 pm PDT April 3, 2008
UPDATED: 5:38 pm PDT April 3, 2008

Federal agents, backed by a police SWAT team, raided a home in Gresham Wednesday night in an identification theft case, officials said.

A spokesman for postal service agents said they served a search warrant for evidence of ID theft but sheriff’s officers said the arrest of the man who lives there, Clifton Smith, is for failure to appear in court on a minor crime.

A U.S. Postal Service inspector said the warrant authorized search for evidence of ID theft, opening credit card accounts with stolen names and buying merchandise.

Police and federal agents arrived in force between 9 and 10 p.m. Neighbors didn’t know what the SWAT team was up to, although they could hear a loud speaker:

"Neighbors, if you’re inside, stay there. If there is anybody still inside the house at 4005, come out with your hands up," neighbor Michele Snyder said.

The residents in the home being raided finally did come out, but neighbors said it took about an hour of amplified monologue, bean bags through the window and SWAT officers with a battering ram to convince them.

"It was pretty crazy, out of control," said Chad Larsen, who lives in the house that was raided.

Nicole Smith said she was only allowed to return to the house Thursday morning, and found broken windows, bean bag rounds in the house and remnants of a search.

"There was glass everywhere. We cleaned it up," Nicole Smith said.

A U.S. Postal Service spokesman said that the investigation is continuing. A Gresham police captain said one of the suspects thought to be inside was considered dangerous.

Officers said Clifton Smith was taken to jail in Portland and transferred Thursday to Washington County for failure to appear on a charge of giving false auto insurance information.

"They say they were interested in ID theft. But he has nothing," said Nicole Smith, whose father was arrested.

A spokesman for the Multnomah County sheriff’s detectives said they continue to regard Smith and his girlfriend, who was also arrested Wednesday for an unrelated crime, as persons of interest in their ID theft investigation.

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