March 28, 2007

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  NEWS: WA Men Printed Bad Checks

  Two Bremerton, Washington men are accused of printing bad checks and using the counterfeit items to buy vehicles. The only catch? The crooks used the address of the city police station as the address on the checks! Two unnamed men, one 18 and one 21, have been taken into custody after passing checks drawn on "Kitsap Credit Union" to purchase eight cars, seven of which have been recovered and returned as of the start of this week, according to police. Authorities think that at least the two people arrested used a check-writing computer software program and magnetic ink to make real-looking checks on a fake "Kitsap Credit Union" account with a plausible bank account number. The address on the upper left-hand side of the checks was given as 1025 Burwell St., which was formerly the location of the Kitsap Community Federal Credit Union, but is now the local police headquarters in the Washington town located across Puget Sound from Seattle. On at least one recorded occasion, investigators say, a woman passing herself off as a credit union employee spoke by telephone with automobile dealership officials.
  
  The scam was unveiled when the dealership in the process of selling the eighth car called the actual location of the real Kitsap Community Credit Union. Employees there were quickly able to debunk the checks as fraudulent. Still, one of the crooks got greedy and was nabbed Friday trying for yet a ninth vehicle, a 2006 Dodge Ram Quad Cab truck worth more than $53,000, at Parr Ford Mazda in Bremerton. He was arrested on suspicion of investigation forgery and theft. Police say that closing in on this suspect wasn't hard; he used an identification card with his actual address as ID for the checks. Police recovered two of the stolen vehicles – a Chevy Suburban worth $20,000 and a BMW worth $35,000 from where they sat in his driveway. Police arrested the other suspect driving a Range Rover that had been bought using one of the fake checks. Police recovered four other vehicles – but are still missing a 1998 Dodge Durango.
  
  
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