#UNSOLVED: Check fraud out of Charlotte homeless shelter hits Whiteville

WHITEVILLE, NC (WWAY) — Police are investigating a string of crimes involving stolen checks and homeless men.

Investigators say the operation started at a homeless shelter in Charlotte.

While three people have already been arrested, it is still happening costing banks in Whiteville thousands of dollars. Lt. Andre Jackson with the Whiteville Police Department said the person behind the operation remains unsolved.

“There is a gentleman that goes to a homeless shelter in Charlotte,” Lt. Andre Jackson. “He’s asking these people, ‘Hey, look. Do you want to make some quick money?'”

Jackson said all it takes is a valid ID.

“When this homeless person goes into the bank with their ID, everything is valid because the ID is checking out good and the check is good because it has not made it to its destination yet,” Jackson said.

One of the checks was stolen from Culligan Water Conditioning in Wilmington.

Culligan Manager Jacqui Leiblein said that check was typed out to one of their vendors for under $200, printed and then mailed.

“Someone is intercepting that check before it gets to that business,” Jackson said.

Lt. Jackson said the man behind the operation is reprinting the check with the same check number, account and routing information, but putting the name of a homeless person on that check. He is also changing the amount of the check.

In this case, that $200 check from Culligan was changed to almost $1,300 and addressed to Leroy Bruce who then walked into a Whiteville bank to cash it.

“So when they walk in the bank they have a blue tooth headset on,” Jackson said.

Jackson said the con artist is on the other line.

“So if the bank teller doesn’t raise any red flags, he’ll tell them, ‘Okay. Everything is good. Go ahead,’ but if the teller gets suspicious about anything, what he’ll do is he’ll tell them go ahead and get out of the bank.”

In Bruce’s case, everything was not good.

“Our bank had called and wanted to know if the individual was standing in the bank at that time and they wanted to cash a check, said that they laid some carpet for us and we don’t have any carpet in our facility at all so we knew that wasn’t a valid check,” Leiblein said.

That is when she said Bruce tried to get out.

“I guess grabbed the check out of her hand, the teller’s hand and ran out of the building,” Leiblein said.

Jackson said Bruce was later arrested along with two others Andre Lewis and Anthony Archie who did the same thing at different banks and he says there is even more.

What do you need to do?

“If you put your mail in a mailbox, kind of be vigilant about that,” Jackson said. “You maybe just want to take it to the post office or just drop it in one of those blue boxes that you know that no one can get in.”

Jackson also said bank employees need to be looking for anything suspicious.

“The ID is from out of town,” Jackson said. “The check is from out of town and why are they cashing the check out of Whiteville?”

While police continue arresting the men doing the dirty work, Jackson said they want the man on the other end of the line.

“This gentleman has used this con to gain a lot of money,” Jackson said.

The man behind this big con stealing from a small town, remains unsolved.

If you have any information or think you may have been affected please contact the Whiteville Police Department.