COUNTERFEIT BILLS, CHECKS DISCOVERED; OXNARD WOMAN, BOYFRIEND HELD.Byline: David Greenberg The creator of this article, or someone who has substantially contributed to it, may have a conflict of interest regarding its subject matter. It may require cleanup to comply with Wikipedia's content policies, particularly neutral point of view. Staff Writer Thousands of dollars in stolen checks were recovered, along with dozens of counterfeit bills, when an anonymous tip led police to an Oxnard motel room rented to an unemployed Oxnard cashier and her boyfriend. Patricia Phillips, 42, and Randall Cowden, 38, an unemployed laborer from Salinas Salinas, city, United States Salinas (səlē`nəs), city (1990 pop. 108,777), seat of Monterey co., W Calif.; inc. 1874. It is the shipping and processing center of a fertile valley famous for its grain and lettuce. , were in jail Monday in lieu of $20,000 bail each on suspicion of conducting a counterfeit check and money operation, officials said. The couple was arrested Thursday at the Vagabond VAGABOND. One who wanders about idly, who has no certain dwelling. The ordinances of the French define a vagabond almost in the same terms. Dalloz, Dict. Vagabondage. See Vattel, liv. 1, Sec. 219, n. Inn, where authorities said they found more than 100 checks stolen from mailboxes in Newbury Park, Camarillo, Ventura, Oxnard, Visalia and Tulare. ``Cases of this magnitude have the potential of being quite far-reaching and damaging to victims, (particularly) of the mail theft,'' said sheriff's Detective Dan Place of the major fraud unit. ``They pass these checks, and suddenly the victims' credit ratings are affected adversely. ``It's a good arrest. We stopped a group before it really got off the ground.'' Place said the couple altered the checks by chemically washing the ink off and then inserting their own name as payee The person who is to receive the stated amount of money on a check, bill, or note. payee n. the one named on a check or promissory note to receive payment. PAYEE. The person in whose favor a bill of exchange is made payable. . Deputies also found $200 in counterfeit $5, $10 and $20 bills that appeared to have been created by a photocopier photocopier Device for producing copies of text or graphic material by the use of light, heat, chemicals, or electrostatic charge. Most modern copiers use a method called xerography. , using legitimate bills as the template, Place said. ``Print up what you need and make more when you run out,'' Place said. Additionally, authorities found counterfeit driver's licenses, blank checks, a photocopier and computer equipment used to create and print bogus checks, he said. The arrest marked the fourth counterfeit operation that deputies have broken up in the past 18 months. ``They are still taking inventory,'' said Sheriff's Department spokesman Eric Nishimoto. ``It's taking a while to catalog everything. I don't know Don't know (DK, DKed) "Don't know the trade." A Street expression used whenever one party lacks knowledge of a trade or receives conflicting instructions from the other party. if it's the biggest, but it's certainly notable.'' Place said the case should be seen as a warning to take precautions to ensure that unauthorized people do not have access to checks. ``My advice to the general public is don't use your personal mailbox A simulated mailbox in the computer that holds e-mail messages. Mailboxes are stored on disk as a file of messages, a database of messages or as an individual file for each message. The standard mailboxes are usually In, Out, Trash and Junk (Spam). to pay bills,'' he said. ``Put it into a secure post office drop box or hand carry them to the post office.'' |
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