Identity thief caught with her Hand in the cookie jar
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“You can imagine going to school one day, picking up the paper and seeing your name in print, especially for something like that,” said Hand. “This girl had stolen my identity and I didn’t even know about it until I saw it on the front page.”
The real Brandy Hand, 21, is working toward becoming a certified nursing assistant at the county’s adult learning center and plans to volunteer at NHC. The Brandy Hand impostor is actually Dorothy Jane Ball McDuffie, who reportedly assumed Hand’s identity because she thought she was wanted on worthless check charges in Florida – an assumption which was wrong.
McDuffie was in the midst of a full-scale identity theft as she reportedly had sent away for a copy of Hand’s birth certificate. The father of the baby she is carrying didn’t even know her real name.
“It’s scary because if this can happen to me, it can happen to anybody,” said Hand, who indicated she had previously dated McDuffie’s brother. “I guess she picked me because I had a legitimate name and a clean record.”
The incident which shed light on the identity theft came last Monday night when three people were taken into custody during a raid of Spangler’s Martin Street residence. Components of an alleged meth lab were discovered there.
Arrested along with Spangler was his employee, Chris Fuqua, 28, who was on probation on meth charges in Georgia, and a pregnant woman who identified herself as Brandy Hand. When details of the arrests were published in the Standard, that’s when the real Brandy Hand stepped forward.
“Hand is not a very popular last name and I knew I was the only Brandy Hand in McMinnville,” she said.
Subsequent questioning of Fuqua, the reported father of the child McDuffie is carrying, revealed he did not know the woman’s real identity, maintaining he knew her only as Brandy Hand.
The identity theft allegedly perpetrated by McDuffie has brought two new charges in addition to the manufacture of meth count she now faces with Spangler and Fuqua. The new charges include criminal impersonation and using a false Social Security number. The Social Security number was not Hand’s.
Duane Sherrill contributed to this report.