I love it when a perp gets busted.

Got a letter today from the Dakota County Attourney. Since this is not a normal occurance, I opened it with some trepedation, having no idea how many parking or speeding tickets Mrs. Grouse could have aquired down there…

As it turns out, it was a pleasant surprise. A POS perp that stole from us got his putrid @ss busted.

We had several checks stolen from our outgoing mail back in December of 2012. The perp was very good and he altered the name on the checks and then managed to cash them at our bank for thousands of dollars each. Luckily, a setting I have on our online account set off an alarm when a personal check cleared for more than $1000 and I was on the phone to the bank within hours.

Then the fun began. The tellers who cashed the checks had violated bank policy by not forcing him to produce ID. Red faces all around. Of course we had to close all our accounts and open new ones, so half a day off of work for Mrs. Grouse and I.

Since the checks were stolen from the mail, we had to be inerviewd by Postal inspectors, the local police, and a bunch of other feds from agencies I’d never heard of.

But the damage was done and I didn’t have any hope that they would ever catch the POS.

Until today. Seems the POS (I won’t put his last name on this site) done got his crook @ss busted. He’s up on a string of FELONY check forgery charges.

Here’s hoping they send his perp @ss up the river and put him in with a nice cell mate called Big Willie.

Way to go Dakota County! Taking out the trash.

Grouse

Good to hear he was caught.

So why are you protecting his name?

EXACTLY!!! What has he done to deserve privacy?!?! Air it out! Its a public service.

Its public record now that he has been arrested. You can say his name.

Innocent until proven guilty perhaps?

I am a USPS city carrier… Postal police will fry him… May want to follow up with postmaster to see whats going on… The penalty for this should be posted in the post office lobby… may wanna rethink putting the flag up for out going mail… thats just my 2 cents… little chat with your rural carrier could come up with something… I drive all over for express runs and I see flags up sat afternoon thru early morning…
If you get any victim statement or any money you ended up having to pay, follow it through… this is VERY important…
when my truck was stolen, I did all the paperwork AND I went to the sentencing… When the judge heard I was in the courtroom… She destroyed him…

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this is VERY important…
when my truck was stolen, I did all the paperwork AND I went to the sentencing… When the judge heard I was in the courtroom… She destroyed him…

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Unless its kids!
Steal a car, wreck it, and get a slap on the wrist (by the judge) and ordered to write an “I’m sorry letter” – without mandates to pay for the wreckage. …..That’ll pi$$ you off.

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We had several checks stolen from our outgoing mail back in December of 2012. The perp was very good and he altered the name on the checks and then managed to cash them at our bank for thousands of dollars each. Luckily, a setting I have on our online account set off an alarm when a personal check cleared for more than $1000 and I was on the phone to the bank within hours.

Then the fun began. The tellers who cashed the checks had violated bank policy by not forcing him to produce ID. Red faces all around. Of course we had to close all our accounts and open new ones, so half a day off of work for Mrs. Grouse and I.

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Boy this brings back some great memories for me, especially on the side of the bank who clearly did not follow their own procedures for cashing checks, and let the nice person cash a check against our account and get cash back immediately, with nary batting an eye…… Was this perhaps WF ?

I would refrain from posting names details etc until case is closed and punishment handed out. WOuldn’t want a savy defense attorney to use anything to help the perp. I work for a Bank thankfully you had taken from mailbox perhaps federal charges will make something happen other than a scolding and a restitution that never happens. Speaking from many years of experience.

Mwal

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Boy this brings back some great memories for me, especially on the side of the bank who clearly did not follow their own procedures for cashing checks, and let the nice person cash a check against our account and get cash back immediately, with nary batting an eye…… Was this perhaps WF ?

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We bank at a small credit union and they’ve always been very good to me. But it was kind of amusing in that “groan out loud” way. As soon as I discovered the fraud, I ran copies of the cancelled checks from the online banking site and went to the branch office.

I went to a teller and explained what happened and asked to see the Branch Manager (whom I know well). She looked at the checks and then got really embarrassed and said, “I hate to admit this, but this is MY teller stamp. I cashed these for this guy yesterday.” Uh-oh.

When I asked her what form of ID he used, she got even more embarrassed. He showed her the APPLICATION for a MN driver’s license. Just the paper form, no picture. Which is a major no-no because the form itself proves nothing. I could fill one out in the name of Richard Nixon, it doesn’t prove that I am Richard Nixon.

So then the branch manager comes over and I go over the situation again and he says, “Which teller cashed these checks?” And she was standing right there. Uh-oh.

But as with anything, the professional perps have it all figured out. He comes in and rants and raves and makes a big scene. He alleges that I bought a car from him and promised to pay cash, but then showed up only with a check. He wants his money NOW! Blah, blah, blah. All this makes the teller uncomfortable. Then if they ask for ID, he lays the race card “What you gotta see ID for? Black man can’t have any money without whitey wondering how he got it?” So teller gets more uncomfortable and lets the rules slip just to get him out of there.

So we went back into the Branch Manager’s office to fill out forms and affidavits and he says, “I can’t believe we just did this to you folks. This is check fraud 101 and NOBOBODY should be able to get away with what this guy just did in our bank.” Ouch.

As we are currently just dealing with criminal charges, I don’t want to put the name out on the interweb and expose the forum to any potential liability.

I will follow up today with the postal inspectors to make sure they are aware that this perp is currently sitting in the Dakota Co. PerpPen and they should go have a visit. Hopefully we can make sure some Federal charges get filed as well.

And of course, we no longer put ANY outgoing mail in our mail box. Sad what things have come to.

Grouse

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And of course, we no longer put ANY outgoing mail in our mail box. Sad what things have come to.

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My wife is paranoid about that (as I guess I should be, too). We usually drop in a blue USPS box or it goes in our outgoing mail at work, which is picked up by a postal worker from our administrative assistant.

A couple of years back I got my truck broken into at a public access in the middle of the day nonetheless. They got a couple hundred dollars worth of goodies and my checkbook. I stopped payment on all of the remaining checks. I didn’t hear nothing for six months then I started getting phone calls for writing bad checks guess which checks. The stores that got screwed all said the guy used the paper license application as an id, that should be a huge red flag to anyone excepting a check. One of the stores got a partial license plate and a description of the guy and the car. After many phone calls to my county investigator I got him to run the plates but after fringing out the truck was registered to a guy in different town it got transferred to a different police dept and the said there is no way to prove the guy that wrote the check was the guy that drove the truck so they weren’t going to waste their time. Talk about make a guy mad. You are one of the lucky ones that might get to see some justice. I hope the guys gets what is coming to him.

I hear about mailbox scams all the time. I also know the kind of perp you are talking about. The know how to use intimidation to get what they want. I have not put a check in a normal mail box in 40 years. Always drop in the post office if not possible the big blue drop box. They attract to much attention from passers by if someone is trying to get in to it. a personal mail box they just drive to every box at 2am that has flag up and grab and keep going down the street. Hope the Feds do something.

Mwal

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When I asked her what form of ID he used, she got even more embarrassed. He showed her the APPLICATION for a MN driver’s license. Just the paper form, no picture. Which is a major no-no because the form itself proves nothing. I could fill one out in the name of Richard Nixon, it doesn’t prove that I am Richard Nixon.

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Yep, same MO Wells fell for.

Wells actually caught my thief trying to cash a check one too many times, only to let her run out the door and not bother to call the police, whose offices were a mere 2 blocks away.

In our case, we also found out that the check they got a hold of was to the state of MN for license tabs ( go figure ). We no longer pay with a check for anything via Washington County any longer….

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Yep, same MO Wells fell for.

Wells actually caught my thief trying to cash a check one too many times, only to let her run out the door and not bother to call the police, whose offices were a mere 2 blocks away.

In our case, we also found out that the check they got a hold of was to the state of MN for license tabs ( go figure ). We no longer pay with a check for anything via Washington County any longer….

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In our case, the checks were clearly lifted from our mail box, so I can’t blame anyone but the perp.

The perp also had a work ID badge in the same name as the driver’s license app. So the bank teller added 1+1 thought they equaled 2. But, of course, neither is an official form of ID and both can be easily forged.

But it just goes to show these perps are professional crooks and they develop their scams to prey on human nature.

I left a message for the postal inspector this AM. The perfect outcome would be for this little Perpbeeaaach to get 5+ in the state pen and then get out in time to be transferred to the Fed pen for mail theft.

Hope the perp likes orange jumpsuits.

Grouse

Wait, so you AREN’T Richard Nixon?

I was thinking about starting a thread on the following.

We are friends with a married couple with elderly parents. Her mom lives here and his dad lives in Georgia. They both fell for a sweepstakes scam. You may have heard about it.

I don’t know the details, but apparently they promise they are the winner of a sweepstakes and need to send money for whatever reason…and they keep coming back for more. They target the elderly because they know they will keep their mouths shut, even after people find out, because they get embarrassed and don’t want to admit it.

Part of the scam is also that a “detective” calls giving a name, badge number and everything. Says he’s got the perps in jail and if she wants to get their money back, they know a lawyer they’ve worked with in the past that can help. Of course, there is an exorbitant fee upfront.

We are talking about $40K and $20K. The only reason he found out about his 91 year old dad being scammed is his dad was going in for surgery and needed and executor. Both cases were discovered while carefully looking over their accounts.

I guess I bring this up for those of us who have elderly parents and relatives.

There is a real detective on the case for the mom. IT’s actually a longer story for how they found out she was giving the money away. THe detective said that this money gets funneled to terrorist organizations usually. They set up shop and close it down before they can get caught and repeat.

I hope there is a cold dark corner in hell reserved for c**ks involved in this stuff. Or at least Karma is real and they die slow, painful deaths.

As an after thought, you might consider online bill pay, it is easy, quick you still have a money trail too.
It is a very affordable service that most banks do provide.

So since the bank was clearly negligent in this particular case they are fully reimbursing you for you losses right?

Tell DA and PI you want constant updates… fill out victims statement, include any expenses you got, lost wages, gas, fees etc. Go to the sentencing and let them know you are there. when the DA says you are in the courtroom, watch the reaction…
you and the wife get steak and beer for lunch after…
when you get home, throw together a lure pack for me… I like lure packs…

The wife had this on her facebook page yesterday. Seems fitting.

Check signatures or lack of.

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So since the bank was clearly negligent in this particular case they are fully reimbursing you for you losses right?

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There was never any question of that, we have fraud protection as part of our checking account. The fact that the credit union dropped the ball just made it that much more certain.

But as with all these things, you never are certain how they actually work until AFTER you need them. My big concern was that the perp altered checks to total over $3000. That’s a lot of coinage to go suddenly missing 2 weeks before Christmas. So how long was it going to take to get it back? A week, a month, what?

As it turned out, the day we reported the fraud and visited the Credit Union the money was back in our account. I have my doubts that any MegaBank would have moved that quickly.

Re the suggestion about online bill pay, we do absolutely everything possible that way. The two checks that were stolen were for rinky-dink one off copays for specialists that didn’t offer an easy pay online option. One to a dermatologist, can’t remember who the other was to. Both checks totaled less than $100.

Grouse

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I have my doubts that any MegaBank would have moved that quickly.

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I don’t know about that. I have had my debit card # lifted (backed by VISA) and the money was back in my account within 24 hours and neither the bank or credit card company were at fault.

I am just happy for whatever legislation allows them to write it off. I assume that the banks and credit cards don’t technically lose money on the deal, otherwise I don’t think the process would be so smoothe.

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I am just happy for whatever legislation allows them to write it off. I assume that the banks and credit cards don’t technically lose money on the deal, otherwise I don’t think the process would be so smoothe.

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I was told by the Credit Union that they carry insurance to pay back the money stolen by fraudsters. Since fraud is an insurance claim, while I got my money back, we all end up paying for it in the end.

Grouse