CALIFORNIA | LOCAL
April 22, 2001 | By MAI TRAN, TIMES STAFF WRITER
Until recently, identity theft was the kind of case some police detectives immediately shunted to that dusty file cabinet in the back of the squad room. The crimes--which involve crooks who assume other people's identity for the purpose of accessing credit cards and looting bank accounts--are among the hardest cases to crack. They often involve complex computer work and tracking suspects who could be living anywhere in the world.