Most cases of identity theft deal with some kind of financial fraud. Identity thieves normally use personal information to steal your hard earned money, but one woman nearly lost something far more precious than her money or credit score. She almost lost her children.

Anndorie Sachs received an unexpected call from the Utah Division of Child and Family Services. The investigator informed her that her newborn child had tested positive for methamphetamine. She had four children, but none of them were younger than two years old. The agent didn’t believe this and said the DCFS was ready to put through paperwork to take away all her children. Her 7 year-old daughter was pulled from her first grade classroom where she testified that her mother had not recently given birth. It took some time to piece together what had actually happened.

Two months before her life was plunged into chaos, Anndorie’s driver’s license was stolen from her car. It fell into the hands of Dorothy Bell Moran, who was 33 weeks pregnant when she went into labor pains. She happened to look similar enough to the owner of the license that she could use it to get into the university hospital. After giving birth to a premature baby girl, she slipped out of the hospital and abandoned her daughter.

When the investigation was mounted, it became quickly obvious that Sachs had not recently given birth and was not responsible for the $10,000 in medical bills or the drug abuse of the premature baby. Charges were dropped and she was allowed to keep her children.

The investigation also led to another critical discovery. Anndorie’s medical records had been altered due to the imposter’s hospital visit and her blood type listing was changed. Because of her blood-clotting disorder, this small alteration in the records could have been fatal if the problem had not been corrected. The hospital assured Sachs that her records had been amended, but due to privacy measures to protect her personal information, she was not allowed to verify this.

Moran was charged with three felonies and a misdemeanor for identity theft and fraud. These charges were dropped because she agreed to plead guilty to another unrelated felony charge. She will face up to 5 years in prison. Her abandoned child is now thriving in foster care. Sachs is still working to repair her identity but said it was worth it to her that her identity allowed this baby to survive.

This entry was posted on Friday, August 1st, 2008 at 9:07 am and is filed under Identity Theft. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.