A public plea to help find a gang of check scammers has apparently paid off big for law enforcers Friday.
At a news conference Friday morning, the Utah Attorney General's Office and several police departments from Davis and Cache counties asked for the public's help in finding a mother and two daughters who had been working overtime writing bad checks. Within 15 minutes, information had been offered that led to two arrests.
RaeLynn Courmier, 57, and her two daughters, 33-year-old Alma Frazier and 35-year-old RoseLynn Ellis, have allegedly written 1,000 to 1,500 bad checks in 2005 for amounts totalling more than $100,000.
"The family that does crime together, does time together," Attorney General Mark Shurtleff said in promising to bring the "female outlaw gang" into custody. "We have a unique situation. We have a family gang."
Within 15 minutes of a local TV station's newscast, investigators received a call from a patron inside the Copper King Bar and Restaurant in Magna where Courmier was working as a waitress and on duty, said Syracuse Police Sgt. Mark Sessions. She was apparently unaware that her wanted photo had just been broadcast on the television inside the restaurant.
Salt Lake County sheriff's deputies went to the restaurant and took Courmier into custody. A search warrant was later served at her North Salt Lake mobile home where investigators found computers, programs and paper all allegedly used to make forged checks, Sessions said.
Also Friday, police received a second anonymous call that Frazier was at a boyfriend's house near 9500 West and 2200 South. Deputies went to that address and took her into custody.
Courmier was booked into the Davis County Jail for investigation of 20 counts of forgery, all third-degree felonies.
Frazier was booked into the Davis County Jail for investigation of 30 counts of third-degree felony forgery. She had 11 previous outstanding warrants for her arrest.
The third woman, Ellis, is believed to be out of state, Sessions said.
The trio allegedly used a computer to make checks, putting fictitious routing and bank account numbers on them. But when they used the checks, they would sign them with their real names, Sessions said.
Investigators believe the women had been writing bad checks from Preston, Idaho, to Orem and possibly even as far south as St. George. Smith's Food King, Albertsons, Maverick and other grocery outlets, gas stations or convenience stores seemed to be their preferred locations to pass the bad checks, Sessions said.
"They would buy a pack of cigarettes, write a check for $100 and get cash back," he said.
Sessions said that in the past three months the trio had brought in an estimated $1,000 a day. Most of their checks were written for between $30 and $150, he said.
The women were believed to be writing 15 to 20 bad checks a day, Sessions said.
"This is likely the biggest and costliest check fraud operation in state history," Shurtleff said.
Drug use appeared to be fueling their alleged scamming. The women had become so brazen that sometimes they'd cash bad checks at the same store twice within 10 minutes, Sessions said.
The checks and bogus routing numbers, "are quality enough they'll fool a scanner," Shurtleff said.
Several stores were alerted to be on the lookout for the women. But apparently they commonly struck when stores were at their busiest and when clerks didn't have time to double check if they were wanted.
All of the women had multiple warrants out for their arrests for investigation of charges ranging from forgery, drugs and prostitution.
E-mail: preavy@desnews.com