Check forgeries on the rise
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By ELIZABETH HOCHSTEDLER
elizabeth.hochstedler@lee.net
Tuesday, December 23, 2008 12:06 PM CST
When a recent burglary and check forgery crime spree was reported in Chippewa County, it wasn’t the first time.
Lake Hallie Police Chief Gale Haas said he has investigated similar crimes in the village before, and agencies from the Minneapolis and St. Paul metro area are reporting a recent string of crimes with the same methods.
Clearwater Cabinetry & Design and Huffcutt Concrete in Lake Hallie were swindled out of almost $30,000 after blank checks were stolen from both Lake Hallie businesses and cashed at area banks two weekends ago.
The formula for the crime has many planned out steps:
The crime is usually performed by people who do not live in the area of the crime. They enter the business during the day pretending to ask for directions or apply for a job, while scoping out the building.
Later that night, they break in and steal only blank payroll checks. Then the next day they go to the bank or bank branches where the checks were issued and attempt to cash them. After they get the money, the leave town.
This is the basic formula the suspects of the Lake Hallie crimes followed.
“That’s the M.O. that sort of happened here, and that’s what’s happening over in the cities,” said Det. Sgt. Dave Johnson with the Chippewa Falls Police Department. Both Lake Hallie and Chippewa Falls police are investigating the crimes as the burglaries occurred in the village, but some checks were cashed in Chippewa Falls.
The suspects of the county crime are four to five Hispanic males who appear to be 20 to 40-years-old, according to Chippewa Falls Police.
At least one man entered each of the businesses during the day Dec. 11, Lake Hallie Police Chief Gale Haas said.
Huffcutt reported a man came into the building and asked for directions to another area business. At Clearwater, a man either asked for directions or about employment.
The men then allegedly returned later that night or early the next morning and broke into the businesses. Both had the door locks forced open. A window was also found unlocked at one of the businesses, which Haas suspects the men unlocked while at the business during the day.
“They went into the businesses and took the blank checks,” Haas said. “They bypassed cash and office equipment; they just wanted (those) checks.”
The checks were also stolen from the middle of the checkbooks in the hope that no one at the business would notice them missing until after they were cashed.
“They knew what they wanted,” Haas said.
The burglars then visited Northwestern Bank branches in Chippewa and Clark counties on Dec. 13. The suspects of such crimes usually go to the bank where the checks were issued from to lessen the number of questions which may be asked. The men made the checks out to look like an average payroll check.
“If the (actual) workers bring the checks to the banks where the checks are drawn on, where the people don’t have accounts, they will likely be cashed,” Johnson said. “If these people would have brought these checks to any other bank, they probably wouldn’t have been cashed.”
At some banks, men walked up to the drive-through window to avoid having their vehicle on camera, while others they walked into. Haas said the department does have some still camera shots of some of the men.
The banks reported the crimes had nearly gone undetected by the businesses before they were both contacted by Northwestern representatives.
Huffcutt Concrete had reported on Dec. 12 that a door had been found open at the business, but Clearwater didn’t report its burglary until after notification from the bank. Haas said the break-in at Clearwater had not been detected by employees there.
Johnson said with all the law enforcement agencies sharing their information, the chances are higher of these men getting caught.
“They’re pretty bold. This is in broad daylight,” he said. “You never know when there’s an officer around the corner.”
In the meantime, he said businesses that cash checks should always take extra care in checking people’s identification.
“Always ask for identification, and I would stress that asking isn’t good enough; really scrutinize the identification you get,” he said. “If you ever have any question whether a check is legitimate, there’s nothing that says you have to cash the check.”
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