Bloomington police say a 25-year-old Minneapolis woman bought a 2013 Infiniti G37 with a fake cashier's check and then listed it online for $8,000. When she was arrested, she was driving a different car that she'd also allegedly paid for with a bad check, and she had titles to 3 more. She's charged with theft by swindle and check forgery. Police said the stolen Infiniti turned up in an apartment parking lot.
Here's how it unfolded. A Bloomington woman posted the Infiniti online on July 9, Bloomington Police Cmdr. Eric Kittelson said. The suspect asked about the car the next afternoon and came to the seller's home on the 1000 block of 106th Street West around 10 p.m. that night for a test drive. Afterward she said she'd take it and handed over a $9,500 cashier's check. The seller didn't check her ID and signed over the title.
The next morning the seller's bank wouldn't cash the check because it wasn't authorized. According to the criminal complaint filed in Hennepin County District Court, the account number was real, but the check number gave it away as a fake, and the check was the wrong color for that bank's cashier's checks. The seller went to police that afternoon, July 11. Then her son found the same online profile that had contacted his mother, now selling the Infiniti for $8,000.
That evening, detectives checked addresses linked to the suspect, including a home in South Minneapolis. They saw her driving away from it, pulled her over, confirmed who she was and arrested her. Kittelson said she also had active misdemeanor warrants in Washington County. She wasn't in the Infiniti, though. She was driving an Audi she said she'd bought that day. She also had the Infiniti's key and titles to 3 other vehicles.
On July 12, detectives called the Audi's registered owner, a Roseville man. Police said he already doubted the check he'd been paid with and had reported it to Roseville police. He also pointed Bloomington officers to an apartment parking lot, and that's where they found the Infiniti.
That adds up to 2 vehicles in the Bloomington case plus titles to 3 more, and that's why police think she may have been building a collection. Police haven't said whether the sellers of those other 3 vehicles were also paid with bad checks. In Minnesota, theft by swindle and check forgery each carry up to 10 years in prison and a $20,000 fine per count.
