Bryan women arrested in theft | Bryan/College Station, Texas

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Published Sunday, August 10, 2008 6:05 AM

Bryan women arrested in theft

By CASSIE SMITH
Eagle Staff Writer

Two Bryan women were arrested after police said they stole from the finance company that employed them.

Tracey Flores, 30, and Flora Acarto, 34, were working for Helping Hands Finance in Bryan when the owners decided to audit the accounts in January after noticing a large amount of money missing from the funds, according to court documents.

Flores made off with $1,370, while Acarto was able to get more than $42,000, authorities said.

When the owners confronted Flores and Acarto, police said that Flores apologized to them for "doing a lot bad things," and said they had destroyed all the evidence, the documents state. Police said Acarto left the store denying the allegations.

Authorities said they discovered numerous forged and unauthorized loan applications, dating back to 2005, when the two women were either opening a closed account or renewing an existing loan. The women were using people's names, date of birth, Social Security numbers and their driver's licenses to create the loans, then taking the money for themselves, according to the documents.

Police said the two women hid their activity by periodically showing a payment on accounts that were nearing their deadlines and renewing loans before they became delinquent. Several accounts were renewed as many as five times, the documents show.

Company officials could not be reached Saturday for comment.

Acarto was being held in the Brazos County Jail on a $35,000 bail. She was charged with fraudulent use of identifying information, a state jail felony punishable by up to two years behind bars. She has previous charges that include theft and tampering with government records.

Flores was released from jail Saturday on $50,000 bail. She was charged with two counts of fraudulent use of identifying information.

• Cassie Smith's e-mail address is cassie.smith@theeagle.com.

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32 comment(s) found!

Posted by: KGB Wanna B On: 8/12/2008

Comment Title: All
For those of you who are about to pray for me......please do. I am a sinner. God created me to sin, then said, "don't sin". I will be at Hooters, if we ever get one!

Posted by: KGB On: 8/12/2008

Comment Title: To Fred Flintstone
Yes, you can throw stones. But wait, some on here will tell you, "thou shall not judge". These are the people that will always say, "he who is without sin". Because you live in a brick house and not a glass house, yes, you can throw stones, just don't judge. Give your 10% to the local church and you CAN run over people in the parking lot on Sunday at noon, when the preacher says go, on your way to Luby's.

Posted by: F. Flintstone On: 8/12/2008

Comment Title:
Can I throw stones? I live in a brick house.

Posted by: On: 8/12/2008

Comment Title:
If these ladies are guilty then let justice be done, hopefully they will have learned their lesson and refrain from breaking the law in the future, for their sakes and their families sake.

Posted by: Kat On: 8/12/2008

Comment Title: credit
I wonder how this will affect the people who's loans that were unknowingly renewed. If these two women are guilty, then I hope that they are forced to pay back all of the money, plus some the people who's names they used to get the money and time in jail. If they didn't, I hope that the company will make things right with them. But so far, the way the story reads, it doesn't look good for the two ladies. God bless their families.

Posted by: On: 8/12/2008

Comment Title: Helping Hands
Just like the insurance co with a similar motto, watch out for that middle finger!

Posted by: On: 8/12/2008

Comment Title:
THESE WOMEN HAVE TO PAY THE PRICE FOR WHAT THEY DID, THEY DON'T NEED THE PUBLIC TO BE JUDGING. I'M SURE YOU LADIES OUT THERE ARE NOT WITHOUT SINS. PEOPLE SHOULDN'T THROW STONES WHEN THEY LIVE IN A GLASS HOUSE TOO.....

Posted by: Proud WORKING hispanic woman On: 8/12/2008

Comment Title: Ignorant people
To all of you ignorant people posting ridiculous comments: GET A LIFE, and some of you need to go back to school and learn proper grammar, if you would have finished school, you would know that your misusing and misspelling a lot of words. You would also know that not all hispanics are stupid or steal from their employer. Unfortunately, it was a couple of hispanic women who got caught this time, but by lying to the government about your living situations, and income to get food stamps and other government help, that is also stealing and worst than anything it is stealing from the government. So I am pretty sure if you go to the food stamp office there will be a whole lot of races and nationalities that they have gotten for fraud. Also, you can view these women's criminal history by going to justice web on the brazos county website under links.

Posted by: #22 On: 8/11/2008

Comment Title: Well
The business name was "helping hands"

Posted by: Jaz On: 8/11/2008

Comment Title: To FGB
You are probly a white boy to says thing like that. You think all blacks are on welfare but they not and not stupid neither. You dont no them at all cause if you did you no that blacks ar not stupid and dont think they rich. We just tring to get our share of stuf and what is owed us and we not stupid

Posted by: FGB On: 8/11/2008

Comment Title: Mexican Lady
You are right, not all mexican women are stupid and they are not all thieves either. But, we did have a garage sale three weeks ago and who did I see stealing little items at the garage sale? Mexican women. I wonder why they get accused of being thieves all the time? You should tell these people not to steal and they would not get labeled. Stereotypes exist because so many actually do the things they are stereotyped for doing. Mexicans steal and blacks are all on welfare and try to look rich.

Posted by: On: 8/11/2008

Comment Title: bail???
yes,,,why is Ms. Flores bail so much higher? Could it be this wasn't her first offense? I don't know,,,can someone tell us???

Posted by: On: 8/11/2008

Comment Title: No you didn't!
Excuse me... I am a mexican lady and I am NOT stupid. How dare you say that. That's why the world is the way it is b/c of ignorant ppl like you. I am a mexican lady and for that reason I will not put down your race. We have respect for all races, unlike yourself.

Posted by: On: 8/11/2008

Comment Title: My opinion
STUPID STUPID STUPID STUPID STUPID STUPID

Posted by: Lois On: 8/11/2008

Comment Title: Should
They should have known they were eventually going to get caught...........YOU ALWAYS DO!

Posted by: JG On: 8/11/2008

Comment Title: Everywhere
No excuse, whether its to pay the bills or for a bottle of liquor. It's all the same! They should be ashamed. I feel sorry for their kids.

Posted by: On: 8/11/2008

Comment Title:
Yeah all the unnecessary comments we can do with out.But we all have families and they were takin from hard workin people that had families also.What facts do we need to know??That they needed it for bills or for their kids?They stole so they have to pay.God bless their families..

Posted by: On: 8/11/2008

Comment Title: Don't Judge
Don't judge before ALL the facts are out! These ladies have families that don't need to hear people making unnecessary comments about them. Everyone person on this earth makes mistakes, so don't be too quick to judge others!

Posted by: On: 8/11/2008

Comment Title:
These women put their ownn business out there by doin that.I thinkk they would of kept on if they didn't catch on.Its not suprising to me that they both done such a thing.

Posted by: Not Named On: 8/11/2008

Comment Title: Comment
If you are going to post someones business out to the public you should make sure you have the correct information. All of you shouldn't judge others because all of us have done wrong in our lives. You do not know the whole situation and are commenting only from what you have read in this article. But everyone is allowed their opinion and this is mines.

Posted by: On: 8/11/2008

Comment Title:
You don't know the whole story! Don't jump to conclusions, Don't judge lest ye be judged!

Posted by: CS On: 8/10/2008

Comment Title:
Bryan Crime again.

Posted by: Customer Service Rep. On: 8/10/2008

Comment Title: Not at all uncommon
Having worked in a few of these loan company's, I've seen this kind of "activity" before. A word for all that have loans with these small companies, keep an eye on your credit reports. There is one loan company in Bryan that encountered this same problem and DID NOT file charges on the manager. So she was not made to pay for the fradulent loans. Many of them were charged off and reported to the credit companies.

Posted by: On: 8/10/2008

Comment Title:
Why is Flores' bail so much higher than Acarto's, especially when Acarto did so much more? And, Pj, it's "thieves," not THIEFS.

Posted by: Clean it up Bryan On: 8/10/2008

Comment Title:
Bryan Finest at work.

Posted by: On: 8/10/2008

Comment Title: crime city.
Bryan Day 20 Crime.

Posted by: On: 8/10/2008

Comment Title:
Bryan Women do crime just like the Men. They look like men also.

Posted by: On: 8/10/2008

Comment Title: The dark side Bryan
They Just wanted to live the Good life.

Posted by: Bryan Crime news every day On: 8/10/2008

Comment Title: Bryan Lost in crime
NBA--------------Normal Bryan Activity------------

Posted by: snook On: 8/10/2008

Comment Title:
Bryan Citzens do work. They will clean you out.

Posted by: CountyGuy On: 8/10/2008

Comment Title: HELPING HANDS FINANCE???
Maybe the owner of this business should explain to the employees that "Helping Hands" is merely the name of the business and is not an invitation for the employees to help themselves.

Posted by: Pj On: 8/10/2008

Comment Title:
I wonder why it took the owners so long to discover this theft? If I owned a business, I would know something was wrong, long before $43,370 was gone! No, Im not excusing what these THIEFS did, that was wrong! I believe this is a payday loan business, and have you saw the interest rates they charge? OMG! Its legalized ROBBERY!