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Sterling small businesses help to stop check-writing scam

Small businesses in Sterling, Illinois, are joining forces to stop a check-writing scam. That teamwork could save their stores thousands of dollars. After 10 ye...

Small businesses in Sterling, Illinois, are joining forces to stop a check-writing scam.

That teamwork could save their stores thousands of dollars.

After 10 years in business, Vicki Mandrell has a soft spot for loyal shoppers at Tuff Dog Bakery.

But she remembers the feeling when an out-of-state customer wrote a bad check for nearly $200 last week.

"I felt like she was robbing me right under my nose," Mandrell recalled.  "She was going to keep going around and doing that to other hard-working business people."

Mandrell fought back by alerting police and nearby shops while testing her sleuthing skills on the internet.

"I started punching in her name, date of birth, Ohio," she recalled.  "Pretty soon, a mug shot came up from 2009."

At Golden Key Gifts, owner Terry Bright recalls the suspicious customer.

"I had this lady come in," he recalled.  "And she says, 'I'm in the mood to shop.'"

After Mandrell's warning, he refused her out-of-state check and snapped a picture of the suspect's car for authorities.

It's just something that neighbors do for each other in a place like Sterling.

"We all stick together," Bright said.  "If something is going on, each of us warns each other."

After yet another tip, Sterling Police arrested Theresa Allen.

She was carrying a Nebraska driver's license and writing bad checks from a Kansas account.

It all comes just in time for Sterling's Small Business Saturday on Saturday, August 1.

The small business owners posed as super heroes for the ads.  Turns out, they're super heroes in real life, too.

As police return to sort things out at Tuff Dog Bakery on Monday, it looks like Mandrell will get most of her merchandise back.

While Allen faces felony charges in Whiteside County,  Mandrell will no longer accept out-of-state checks.

"We just all work too hard to have somebody walk in and do that to us," she concluded.

Small business sleuthing that stopped a scam before it cost others lots of hard-earned cash.

 

 

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