Was he a fox in the hen house? An I.D. theft suspect was caught working inside of a state office in charge of protecting public money and it’s where the evidence was found that raised even more questions.

“He was one of our auditors in the special investigations division,” said state auditor Wayne Johnson.

A former senior auditor at the Santa Fe office, Terry Becenti found himself in hot water late last month. 

“There was an employment action that resulted in him leaving the agency,” Johnson said.

According to the arrest warrant, poor performance, tardiness and not following policy resulted in him getting the boot.

“During the course of that, when we were going through his files to double check where his work was, we found some evidence that we believe to be of criminal nature,” Johnson explained.

That evidence police say was four social security cards from different people found on a USB drive Becenti left behind.

“It was enough to make us concerned that there was some type of identity theft going on,” Johnson said.

That’s not all they found. 

“We found an owners manual for a vehicle, we found a registration for a vehicle,” he said. “We found some drivers licenses that had been scanned and apparently worked on and doctored with.”

Police say the six altered licenses were from Arizona and New Mexico. The state auditors office immediately called state police who took over the investigation. 

KRQE News 13 questioned if obtaining social security cards and drivers licenses were protocol in this line of work. 

“For the state auditors office, absolutely not. We don’t ask for personal identification like drivers licenses,” Johnson said. “Those records are personal in nature and private in nature and we wouldn’t have them in our office.”

The state auditors office says none of what was found corresponded with any cases Becenti worked on.

“We feel confident that these activities were relegated to outside of the office,” he said. “We were certainly not aware of it prior to his termination.”

An arrest warrant was issued for Terry Becenti on Wednesday. When he is picked up he will be held without bond until he faces a judge. 

Police searched his apartment as well. The landlord told authorities that Terry Becenti had walked out on his lease.