GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) — A man faces 15 years in federal prison for using a combination of fake credit cards and IDs to try to scam stores at the Tanger Outlets in Byron Center.
Earl Jarome Wright III is the 34-year-old grandson of a venerated late bishop of the Church Of God In Christ in Detroit.
In 2011, Wright III pleaded no contest to his first count of stealing a financial transaction device in Oakland County. He got a one-year sentence. In 2015, he was sentenced to prison for stealing credit cards and he was released in May 2017. And in January, he was trying to use fraudulent credit cards in Kent County.
Then on Feb. 19, according to the FBI, Wright decided to come to the Tanger Outlets with a trunk full of fake credit cards and IDs. He charged $178 at Banana Republic using a card belonging to someone in Indiana. He also used a stolen card to charge $772 at the Shinola watch store, police say.