Houston store hit hard by stolen credit card ring

HOUSTON (KTRK) -- The women came in looking presentable and they had the credit card to match. They came in a Mercedes, and they looked the part.

But Matt Stacy, the owner of Houston Flooring Warehouse says these women ended up being thieves.

"I remember the customers because I was in here that day, " he said.

The women had expensive taste.

"They found the floor that they wanted, went to one of the more expensive floors, just nice because we have a lot of people who buy a lot of nice things, " Stacy said.

Stacy says the woman's ID matched the name on the American Express credit card she used to buy the flooring.

The price came out to a whopping $34,000, but a good sale turned bad when an American Express investigator paid a visit to the company's headquarters in Dallas.

"He told us about what was going on, that he suspected it was a credit card ring, a group that was doing this and they were a whole group of the stolen cards."

But the ID matching the credit card, and the woman's car tag seemed legit.

Yet, police say it was all fake, Stacy said.

The real credit card belongs to a company in California.

Now, these women are nowhere to be found, and this business is out a lot of money. The store is offering a $5,000 reward, and taking measures so this doesn't happen again.

"Unfortunately, this was a heavy hit to the corporation. However we're getting smarter."