ALTAMONT — An investigation into a fire last month in Altamont uncovered a case of one family member stealing from another, police say.

Thomas M. Stevens, 34, of 111 Park St., Altamont, was arrested on Jan. 27 at the Altamont Police station for second-degree grand larceny, and first-degree identity theft, both felonies.

Altamont Public Safety Commissioner Anthony Salerno told The Enterprise that Stevens, without permission, used the Social Security number and date of birth of a family member to set up credit-card accounts on the Internet. He used the cards to buy over $50,000 worth of merchandise, police say.

According to Salerno, police discovered the identity theft in the course of an investigation of a fire in Stevens’s home on Dec. 11, 2005. The fire was an accident, Salerno said, but a background check on the house’s residents, done for insurance purposes, alerted investigators to the theft.

Salerno would not say from what family member Stevens stole. When The Enterprise reported on the fire, in December, the fire department said a man and his elderly mother lived at the house.

Stevens was sent to Albany County’s jail.