Phone call from 400 miles away helps stop ID theft operation, ends with arrest of Antioch man
Has victims in multiple states, history of arrests, already out of custody
By Antioch Police Department
On July 21, 2026, Lear Capital, a Los Angeles-based precious metals company, contacted the Antioch Police Department to report suspicious transactions they believed were fraudulent. Their employees noticed something was off, and instead of looking the other way, they picked up the phone and called us.
That call mattered. Detective Duff quickly connected the activity to victims in multiple states with combined losses of nearly $30,000. Within days, detectives served a search warrant at an Antioch residence and recovered stolen property, including $9,000 in gold, along with check-printing equipment, card readers, personal identifying information belonging to numerous people and two firearms.
Terrence Gordon Langston, 34, of Antioch, was arrested and the Contra Costa County District Attorney’s Office has filed felony identity theft and grand theft charges.
According to localcrimenews.com, he has a history of arrests by Antioch and Colma Police and the Contra Costa Sheriff dating back to 2017 for crimes including receiving stolen property – motor vehicle, receiving or concealing stolen property and for a bench warrant/failure to appear on a misdemeanor charge.
According to the Contra Costa County Sheriff’s Office, he is Black and as of Aug. 4th at 5:07 PM has already bonded out of custody.
On Langston’s Facebook page, it shows he’s self-employed since January 2018 and he posted a video of himself talking about something he called “Money Mystery” and described as “the next generation of broadcast.” Langston said that he’s “been MIA for a minute…because I’ve been working on my own app” and was “in the beta-testing stages” and looking for “11 testers” to help him and “each week…giving out $11 to each tester.” Under Langston’s education it shows California State University, Northridge.
We want to thank Lear Capital for doing the right thing. Most identity theft victims don’t know they’ve been targeted until the damage is done. Alert businesses are often the first to spot it.
That’s the lesson in this case: early detection stops fraud. Here’s how to detect it early in your own life.
Freeze your credit. It’s free, takes about 10 minutes, and blocks anyone from opening accounts in your name. You can unfreeze it anytime.
Equifax: equifax.com/personal/credit-report-services/credit-freeze
Experian: experian.com/freeze
TransUnion: transunion.com/credit-freeze
Sign up for USPS Informed Delivery. This free service emails you a photo of the mail arriving at your address each day, before it gets there. If something goes missing between the photo and your mailbox, you’ll know. Mail theft remains one of the most common ways criminals steal identities. Sign up at informeddelivery.usps.com.
Check your credit reports. You’re entitled to free weekly reports from all three bureaus at AnnualCreditReport.com.
Look for accounts you don’t recognize.
Verify before you share. If someone calls claiming to be your bank, a company you do business with, or even law enforcement, hang up and call back using a number you find yourself. Legitimate organizations will never pressure you to stay on the line.
If it happens to you, report it at IdentityTheft.gov and file a report with your local police department. A police report is often required to dispute fraudulent accounts.
All defendants are presumed innocent unless proven guilty in court.
Allen D. Payton contributed to this report.
the attachments to this post:
APD & Terrence Langston cash & gold bars
