A Madison-area man has been accused of cashing a forged check at a Waterford bank and then attempting to do the same at a Burlington bank in what may have been part of a larger scheme.
Richard J. Johnson, 18, of Fitchburg was charged Aug. 22 in Racine County Circuit Court with uttering a forgery, a Class H felony.
Police were summoned to BMO Harris Bank (formerly M&I Bank) on Milwaukee Avenue Aug. 21 by a bank employee who was suspicious about a customer attempting to cash a check for $2,176.
The bank employee had called the company that purportedly issued the check and was told the check was a fake.
When approached by police, Johnson said he had received the check from friends who were waiting in the parking lot in a car with Georgia license plates. He then declined to offer any other information
The car was reportedly gone when an officer left the bank to look for it, but was located by police elsewhere in the city and pulled over. The two people in the car denied any knowledge of the check and agreed to be fingerprinted and photographed before being released.
At the police station, Johnson told an officer he had additional information to share. He said a person he knows in Madison put him in touch with two men from Georgia who agreed to pay him $300 to cash some checks for them.
He said they first attempted unsuccessfully to cash checks in Illinois before succeeding at a bank in Waterford and attempting to do the same in Burlington.
Police are checking into surveillance video from the other banks and from the local Sentry store – where one of the other suspects reportedly stopped – as the investigation continues.
A preliminary hearing in Johnson’s case has been set for Sept. 6 in Racine County Circuit Court.
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