Bloomington police charged a 25-year-old Minneapolis woman with theft by swindle and check forgery after she allegedly bought a 2013 Infiniti G37 with a bad cashier's check, and detectives now suspect she'd been quietly building a small fleet of vehicles the same way.
Police said the seller listed the Infiniti online on July 9. The woman test-drove it the next day, July 10, and handed over a cashier's check for $9,500. The seller only realized something was wrong the following day, when a deposit attempt flagged the check as invalid — the account number matched, but the check number was wrong and the check itself was the wrong color compared to real checks from that bank.
She was arrested July 11 during a traffic stop, and at the time she was driving an Audi she'd told officers she'd bought that same day, according to Bloomington Police Commander Eric Kittelson. She also had active misdemeanor warrants out of Washington County.
The next day, July 12, a Roseville man contacted police to report that he, too, had been paid for a car — the Audi — with a fraudulent check. Between the two vehicles and three more for which she held titles, police recovered five vehicles total connected to the woman, raising the question of how many other sellers may have been paid with bad paper.
Theft by swindle and check forgery each carry a maximum of 10 years in prison and a $20,000 fine per count in Minnesota. It's unclear from court records whether additional charges are expected as the investigation into the other vehicles continues.