A 45-year-old Poplar Bluff woman is behind bars facing alleged forgery charges.
A Butler County Deputy arrested Elizabeth Hart of the 1700 block of Spring Street Thursday, May 12, while she was attempting to cash a fraudulent check at a Munch N Pump Convenience store on Highway 160 near 67 Highway.
Butler County Chief Deputy Wes Popp said, “During the course of the investigation, Hart was found to be in possession of approximately 500 blank check templates, a laptop and printer, which were seized as evidence.”
As the investigation continued, Hart was linked to three other Munch N Pump Convenient stores as well as Stateline Truck Stop, where Hart did successfully cash fraudulent checks, Popp said.
Hart later admitted to making and cashing the checks not only in Butler County but also Ripley, Carter and Dunklin counties. Butler County investigators have contacted those counties to check their reports.
Popp believes Hart began cashing checks in Butler County at the beginning of the year before disappearing for a time, apparently while she was in other counties. Then she came back, and the checks started showing up.
She made a mistake and used her own ID at one check cashing place, and it just linked everything up, Popp said,
“(Munch N Pump) clerks were on the money as far as for description and whatnot. They spread their information rather quickly. So when the checks started showing up, they started calling each other and that’s how we ended up with the last one.”
Popp explained the clerks said, “Hey, by the way, we’ve got information. They were cashing checks and one called and said, ‘she’s here.’”
Butler County Deputy James Goins showed up on the scene and arrested her.
Popp explained as of now, it appears Hart only targeted businesses which cash payroll.
“It’s still investigative and we’re still contacting other counties,” he said.
As they continue with the search warrants, Popp said “we have the forensic downloads done, it’ll probably be Wednesday or Thursday” before investigators are ready to release more information. However, Popp wanted to remind others, “we don’t play.”