It’s a crime that gives new meaning to the phrase “band of thieves.”

An unidentified woman is suspected of using stolen credit card numbers on six separate occasions last month to buy three trumpets, two flutes and a clarinet – valued at more than $2,500 total – from Hume Music, 711 W. 23rd St.

A store manager said the woman convinced store clerks she was buying the instruments for a family member, something that’s not uncommon at the beginning of the school year. Customers often come in to look at instruments, then place an order later using a credit card.

“I believe it was, ‘My daughter’s starting band this fall. I need to get an instrument. I’m going to have to talk with my husband,'” manager Shawn Evans said. “Then the order was called in over the phone.”

Evans said the woman had all the information normally used to verify the card’s legitimacy for phone orders, such as the mailing address and a security code from the back of the card. After placing the order, she’d come back and pick up the instrument.

Evans said the woman worked with different clerks and was able to pull the scam six times between Aug. 12 and Aug. 24 before employees realized what was happening.

“The timing was just perfect with back to school. We’ve sold tons of instruments in the last two weeks,” he said.

Steven Coup, a 56-year-old Salina man whose credit card number was one of those used to make the purchases, doubts the instruments are being used to start a new chamber-music ensemble.

He said he thinks the woman wanted to “probably re-sell them and get cash for them and maybe use the money for drugs.”

The music store may not have been the only business targeted. On eight separate occasions during August, a woman with a similar description – about 5 feet 6 inches, 130 pounds with blond hair – used a credit card number with no actual credit card to buy pre-paid phone cards at Presto, 1030 N. Third St. Those purchases totaled more than $1,500.

Coup said he’d been told that police have identified a possible suspect who previously worked at a hotel where he stayed when he came to visit Lawrence.

Sgt. Dan Ward, a Lawrence Police spokesman, said he couldn’t comment on suspects. But he said the case remains under investigation and officers are pursuing several leads.