POSTED: 12:19 pm PDT April 22, 2007
UPDATED: 12:58 pm PDT April 22, 2007

SAN LORENZO, Calif. -- In the wake of an identity theft ring that struck two East Bay Albertsons stores, officials held a workshop Saturday in San Lorenzo -- just a few blocks from an Albertsons store where about 100 people have reported having money taken from their accounts.

Albertsons stores in Alameda and San Lorenzo were hit by high-tech thieves who have scammed well over $100,000 from the bank accounts of shoppers at the grocery chain, police said.

At the workshop, state Rep. Mary Hayashi spoke of possible legislation to raise identity theft to a felony-level crime. Police told attendees to report identity theft to the police -- not just to the bank.

Police said no one has been arrested in connection with the identity thefts, but that they believe the thefts are related to a sophisticated Southern California crime ring. They also said they do not believe any Albertsons employees were involved.

"To the best of our knowledge, it's one unit, one lane in San Lorenzo Albertson's store, and then also one lane in our Alameda store," said Albertson's spokesman Steve Ackerman of the credit card readers believed to have been switched out by the thieves.

Detectives said they hope workshops will help people to spot this type of crime.

Albertsons officials are inspecting all of their credit card scanning machines in the Bay Area and are installing new devices where necessary, police said.