Andrew likely won’t apply for a car loan for another 20 years, and a mortgage loan is about 30 years away.
But the 5-month-old boy, an apparent victim of identity theft, could already be racking up bad credit.
“We’re worried we’ll miss something and years from now he’ll have problems because of all of this,” said Andrew’s father, John, a Bothell-area resident.
The parents asked their last name not be used for fear of additional identity theft.
In May, about three weeks after Andrew was born, he received a $94 bill from a doctor’s clinic in Edmonds. No one in the family had been to the clinic, and Andrew doesn’t have a “disc displacement,” or back injury.
Someone used the family’s address and what appeared to be Andrew’s first name, with the ‘w’ dropped, and his middle name as a last name.
“I thought it was just too big of a coincidence,” John said. “My next thought was, ‘How did they get this information and what else do they have?’”
Police also don’t think it’s a coincidence. A detective identified a potential suspect by showing clinic personnel a photo lineup, said Edmonds Sgt. Jeff Jones.
The man, who has a criminal history, allegedly obtained a prescription after seeing a doctor at the Edmonds clinic for his back injury. He has not been arrested, but a detective continues to investigate the case.
Jones didn’t know how the man found Andrew’s information.
“There’s a 100 million ways to get a person’s name and address,” he said, adding that Andrew’s parents said their son’s full name and address were only on two documents at the time of the theft.
The suspect allegedly made the appointment at the clinic two weeks after Andrew’s birth.
John and his wife, Katrina, had filled out paperwork at Evergreen Hospital and Medical Center in Kirkland, where Andrew was born, and at his doctor’s clinic.
“We didn’t even send out birth announcements,” John said.
He wonders if the information was obtained from those documents, which included other personal information.
Evergreen couldn’t find any evidence that the information was taken from the hospital, spokeswoman Amy Gepner said. No other patients have complained about identity theft, she said.
While caring for a newborn, John and Katrina found themselves navigating through the maze of identity theft — one of the fastest-growing crimes in Snohomish County.
“I’ve learned a lot. I was amazed at how much information is on the Internet,” John said.
John pushed police to take a report on the case, and made the hospital walk him through the paperwork process.
The couple both put fraud warnings on their credit histories. John and Katrina tried to do the same for Andrew, but he doesn’t have any credit yet, John said.
They worry that someone is out there using their son’s name and they won’t know about it, John said. They have yet to find evidence that has happened.
“It’s stressful. This is your baby, and you want to protect him,” John said. “How could someone prey on an innocent little kid?”
Andrew seems unfazed. He sleeps through the night, has a healthy appetite and smiles at his big brother.
Diana Hefley is a reporter with The Herald in Everett.
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