Crime And Law

Hear what Dayton church says after woman alters, cashes check for more than $600

DAYTON — A Dayton church wrote a $10 check to help a woman get a state ID, but that amount was changed and they were bilked out of more than $600.

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News Center 7’s Ronnell Hunt talked to the church about the crime, and what they want people to know about their mission moving forward.

Westminster Presbyterian Church, at 125 N. Wilkinson St., has been helping people attain paperwork such as birth certificates and state-issued identification cards through its ID ministry for more than a decade.

But recently that good work was exploited.

The church issued a $10 check Dec. 4 for a woman who needed help getting a new ID. A few weeks later, church member Craig Showalter said he found out the check was no longer made out to the Ohio Treasurer’s Office.

“It was completely reworked,” he said. “It was made out to a woman’s name, interestingly enough, also the address was on the check.”

The name wasn’t all that was altered, he said.

“I got online and I find the check we had written for $10 had cleared our bank for $632,” Showalter said.

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The crime doesn’t sit will with some.

“No one should ever fraud Jesus, especially in our own city,” Treshawn Woodard of Dayton said.

Last year, the church had two similar check-altering incidents.

But Showalter said no matter what, the church’s mission to help others will continue.

“Some individuals think that they can just cheat the system this way. But its not deterring us from what we are doing. We are going to keep doing this,” he said.

The church filed a report with the Dayton Police Department. So far, no arrest has been made in the case.

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