BLOGS

Counterfeiting 101

Blog: The Worm

If you're planning to cash a counterfeit check, you may not want to show up at the business where you hope to cash it in a stolen vehicle. That's the advice of Chelan County Sheriff's Capt. Jason Mathews, whose agency arrested a 34-year-old Wenatchee woman on Thursday morning after an alert business employee declined to cash two checks, and then got the woman's license plate number as she drove away and called police. Lesson No. 2, Mathews says, is not to return to the scene of the attempted crime. After unsuccessfully cashing her checks, the woman came back to the Chelan business on Highway 97A a short time later, and by then, police had checked out the vehicle's license number and discovered it had been reported stolen from Wenatchee on Dec. 28. When deputies arrived at the business, the woman had left again, but they put out information about the stolen vehicle to other agencies, so when a state Department of Fish and Wildlife officer saw her driving north on Highway 97A about 10 miles outside of Wenatchee, he attempted to stop her, Mathews said. She eventually pulled over and was taken into custody, booked into the Chelan County Regional Justice Center on suspicion of possession of a stolen vehicle. Police are still investigating possible charges of identity theft and fraud, he said.