'Boob-job bandit' surrenders to police

Reuters

BOOB JOB BANDIT: Yvonne Pampellonne of Laguna Nigel, California.

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A California woman accused of using a fake identity to obtain breast implants from a plastic surgeon, earning the nickname 'The Boob-Job Bandit' in local media, has turned herself in to police.

Yvonne Jean Pampellonne, 30, surrendered on Tuesday afternoon to authorities in Huntington Beach, California, where she was wanted on charges of commercial burglary, grand theft and identity theft.

The Orange County Register newspaper reported that Pampellonne - who had attracted sensational coverage as the so-called "Boob-Job Bandit" in the local media - was caught by police detectives using breast implant tracking numbers.

She arranged her surrender through an attorney and has since been released on US$20,000 bail with orders to face an arraignment on the charges on May 27.

Police say that in September of 2008 Pampellonne used the personal information of another woman to establish a line of credit at the Pacific Center for Plastic Surgery in Huntington Beach.

Doctors performed US$12,000 in liposuction and breast augmentation surgery at the centre, police say, unwittingly charging US$12,000 to the phony line of credit and exchanging her existing implants for new ones.

Medical staff at the centre became suspicious after Pampellonne returned for follow-up appointments and, after police identified her through the tracking numbers on the old implants, picked her out of a photo line-up.

Pampellonne's arrest marks the second plastic surgery-related case this year in Orange County, which in recent years has been portrayed as an oceanfront playground for the wealthy on such TV shows as The Real Housewives of Orange County and The O.C.

In January and February, an unidentified woman who gave her name as "Miriam Gombar" or "Miriam Flemings" had thousands of dollars worth of Botox injections and dermal filler at a pair of clinics in Newport Beach and left without paying

According to the Register newspaper, a worker at one of the clinics described the mystery woman as having a dark complexion and shoulder length hair, adding that she was in her late 40s to early 50s, adding that she was "not very attractive."

- Reuters