A 26-year-old Los Angeles man was arrested Thursday, April 11 after a police investigation found he was stealing and altering checks into his own name.
At 12:43 pm officers of the Santa Monica Police Department were called out to ZDX Industries (a general contractor and engineering company) located at 3122 Santa Monica Boulevard in order to investigate a case of fraud.
When the officers arrived they spoke with the president of the company who told them that she had, some days earlier, placed three checks (payable to other businesses that her company does business with) into a secured mail drop in the lobby of her business.
A few days after she had done this she received a call from one of these companies informing her that they had not received the check.
The company president then discovered that one of these checks had been altered, with a different payee name being applied to the check.
She also discovered that the other two checks were missing.
She later discovered that a second check had also been altered.
Investigators were immediately assigned to this case and they found out that the two forged checks had been deposited at an identified individual bank account.
The investigators then recruited the assistance of the Los Angeles Police Department and U.S. Postal Inspectors.
Authorities then went to the 200 block of Oxford Street in Los Angeles and arrested the suspect based upon the evidence and a warrant.
The officers also discovered this suspect was in possession of numerous stolen pieces of mail, evidence of identity theft, as well as materials that are commonly utilized to forge checks.
This man was charged with obtaining credit using another person’s identification, forgery, receiving stolen property, and unauthorized use of a person’s identity.
Bail was set at $50,000.
Editor’s Note: These reports are part of a regular police coverage series entitled “Alert Police Blotter” (APB), which injects some minor editorial into certain police activities in Santa Monica. Not all of the Mirror’s coverage of incidents involving police are portrayed in this manner. More serious crimes and police-related activities are regularly reported without editorial in the pages of the Santa Monica Mirror and its website, smmirror.com.
