Crime & Safety

Eagan Restaurant Manager Charged with Fraud, Identity Theft

Kenllhy Vanessa Camargo is accused of illegally using customers' left-behind credit cards at stores around Eagan.

The manager of a KFC restaurant in Eagan has been charged with identity theft and credit card fraud after authorities say she used two customers’ left-behind credit or debit cards to rack up charges at stores around town.

Kenllhy Vanessa Camargo, 36, of Eden Prairie, is accused of illegally using customers’ cards last June 22 and June 30. 

Camargo, reached Monday afternoon at the restaurant, initially told a caller that she still worked there, but that she has a new last name. When she was contacted a few minutes later, she insisted that nobody by the name “Kenllhy” worked there and hung up repeatedly on the caller.

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According to the criminal complaint against Camargo, Eagan police were contacted last June 22 by a woman who said she made a purchase at the KFC location at 4585 Erin Lane and inadvertently left behind her debit card.

The customer told police that she called the restaurant and was told by a shift manager that the card was there. Before she went back to the restaurant on June 23 to pick up the card, her bank notified her that the card had been used for multiple transactions at stores around Eagan.

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The complaint says the card was used for $638 in unauthorized purchases: $85 at a coffee shop, $100 at a salon, $30 at a bagel shop, $75 at another salon, $158 at a weightloss store and $190 at a retail store.

Police got video surveillance tapes from two of the stores and went to the restaurant to determine whether the person in the video was an employee. They determined that Camargo matched the description of the person using the victim’s card in the videos, according to the complaint.

The complaint says Camargo admitted to police that she took the card from the restaurant, used it in stores around Eagan and then returned it so the victim could pick it up.

During their investigation of the June 22 incident, police received a report from another KFC customer who left her card behind and found unauthorized transactions on it when she picked it up.

The complaint says police determined that Camargo had waited on the second victim at the restaurant on June 30. That victim’s card was subsequently used for $625 in unauthorized purchases: $150 at a retail store, $50 at a gas station, $50 at a coffee shop, $190 at another retail store and about $185 at two salons, according to the complaint.

Camargo faces a maximum penalty on each of the four felony theft charges of 5 years in prison and a $10,000 fine. She is scheduled to make an initial appearance in Dakota County District Court in Hastings on May 23.


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