MOULTRIE — A ham biscuit and confectionery, along with a bank employee’s assistance, helped put a Colquitt County woman in jail Thursday on multiple felony charges, including car theft and identity fraud.

Police said that they arrested Mary Elizabeth Wiggins at about 2:23 p.m. in a stolen Honda when she arrived at a local bank. It was her fourth trip to check on a loan application she had made in the name of the car’s owner, whose identification and credit cards were in the 2014 Accord Thursday morning at the time it was stolen.

What the suspect didn’t know, police said, was that the bank employee with whom she talked actually knew the victim and had tipped off law enforcement. The car theft also was recorded on video at Alpendrasinh Solanki’s residence in the 1300 block of 10th Street Southeast.

“The victim gets a call later in the day from Ameris Bank that the suspect was trying to get a $17,000 loan for a Mercedes using her identification,” Colquitt County Sheriff’s Inv. Chris Robinson said.

After police were notified that the woman had returned several times they waited to see whether she would return. They were not disappointed.

“She comes driving through again in the Honda,” Robinson said. “A Moultrie police officer made a traffic stop. She’s got items in the car matching items in the (Solanki’s) video and all the victim’s ID cards.”

At Solanki’s residence video surveillance cameras recorded a white woman in boots with a backpack approaching the family’s back door and being deterred from entering by a dog on the back porch. The woman then went to the car, which was unlocked and had the remote start key inside, and drove away in it.

As a deputy was taking an initial report from Solanki he checked his account and found that someone was making a purchase at the fast food restaurant at that time using one of the stolen cards. 

“We also found out the suspect had gone to Hardee’s and got a $4.15 ham biscuit and cinnamon roll,” Robinson said.

By the time an officer got there the suspect was gone.

Although the suspect didn’t drive away in the car, she did get a ride to Colquitt County Jail. 

Police charged Wiggins, 26, 822 Funston-Sigsbee Road, with theft by taking motor vehicle, identity fraud, forgery and financial transaction card fraud.

As of Thursday evening she had not had a bond hearing.