Forgery arrests in Blue Ash raise questions about recent rash of checks stolen from Cincinnati mailboxes
Former local county prosecutor says someone ripped him off to the tune of $35,000
Former local county prosecutor says someone ripped him off to the tune of $35,000
Former local county prosecutor says someone ripped him off to the tune of $35,000
Victims of a recent rash of crimes involving checks stolen from mailboxes, along with police detectives throughout Greater Cincinnati, want to know if five people arrested Monday at a Blue Ash hotel are connected in any way.
"Get down on the ground, face down," a Blue Ash police officer said to one of the suspects in an exchange captured by the officer's body worn camera.
"You got to start listening, dude," said another Blue Ash officer.
"Police executed a search warrant and found them in possession of fraudulent checks, computer printers, computers, ripped up forged checks and blank checks – all used for part of their criminal enterprise," Hamilton County prosecutor Dave Wood said during Tuesday during the suspects' initial court appearance.
"I'm still one of those kind of old-school people that writes checks," said Scott O'Reilly.
O'Reilly doesn't know who ripped him off but said he fell victim about 10 days ago. That's when he dropped a couple checks into a big blue mail box in the Hyde Park Plaza.
"You know, four or five days ago, I was getting ready to take some money out of the ATM and noticed $35,000 was missing from my checking account," O'Reilly said.
O'Reilly showed WLWT investigator Todd Dykes images of the stolen checks, featuring names he's never heard of and dollar amounts worth vastly more than what he originally wrote.
"I'm like, I haven't written a $17,000 check since I bought my house," O'Reilly said. "So why does that not set alarms off."
O'Reilly, a former local county prosecutor, is glad he noticed his money was missing quickly. He worries about other people who pay bills by writing checks — and who may not be aware of cash missing from their accounts.
"Thankfully, I caught it," he said. "I mean, you've got elderly folks who if they're not on top of their banks, and they lose that. That's a real financial hardship for a lot of people."
Dykes reached out to the postal inspector's office to get more information about the five people arrested in Blue Ash and to see where things stand overall.
A spokeswoman for the agency's Cincinnati field office said her colleagues still have an "active investigation going on" and "are currently following up investigative leads."