Police seek check fraud suspects

 
Officers from Scotts Valley Police Department are searching for two suspected accomplices of a fraudulent check ring following the arrest of a 34-year-old Oakland woman Jan. 9 at Safeway in Scotts Valley.
According to Lt. John Wilson, Safeway employees noticed Oakland resident Alexis Slaten and a second woman separately writing two checks for more than $100 each.
Slaten was allegedly trying to pass a third check when employees alerted the police, who confirmed that the check was fraudulent and arrested her, Wilson said.
The attempts were about an hour apart, he said.
Officers identified the second woman through security footage as 28-year-old Retascha Harrison of Hayward, after two other suspicious checks were found in the till.
He said Slaten, Harrison and a third suspect, Lawrence Stone, had already been suspected of manufacturing fraudulent checks and passing them at stores along the Central Coast.
“We do know it has happened in other Safeways throughout the area, according to Safeway security,” Wilson said.
Wilson said that Slaten was booked into Santa Cruz County Jail and issued a $50,000 bond and that investigators had been in contact with the district attorney’s office to seek a warrant for Harrison and Lawrence.
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