A nationwide scam known as "Operation Homeless" hit Lincoln last week when three transients cashed more than $21,000 in bogus checks in exchange for money, a night at a hotel and meals at McDonald’s, Lincoln police said.
On Tuesday, officers arrested Paul Edward Bellow, 54, on two counts of felony forgery, Lincoln Police Officer Katie Flood said. Investigators have identified two other suspects but have not arrested them.
Police said Bellow and two other men went into Security First branches at 4811 Van Dorn St. and 8260 Northwoods Drive on Friday morning and cashed five checks totaling $21,138, Flood said.
She said police believe an unknown group of people recruited them the day before, paid Bellow $450, put him in a hotel for the night and fed him.
The group is part of a loosely organized, nationwide scheme called Operation Homeless in which swindlers stay behind the scenes and pay local transients to cash bad checks.
People are also reading…
The scammers are Blood gang members from Atlanta, Ga., and started focusing on cities in the Southeast and Midwest last summer, U.S. Postal Inspector Jim O’Hara said in a news release posted on Clinton National Bank’s website.
They steal checks from the mail, usually in industrial areas, use the originals to make fakes and then recruit homeless people to cash them. They usually pay around $100 for every $1,000 cashed.
For example, Blood gang members stole a check in rural Polk County, Iowa, last year on June 18, used it to make six fakes and recruited homeless people to cash them two days later at banks in three different cities in Iowa, O’Hara said.
Tom Barber, executive director of People’s City Mission, said he first learned about the scam Wednesday but wasn’t surprised criminals would target a vulnerable population like the homeless.
“Any time a deal comes along, they’re the first you prey on because so often they’re in the worst situation. They’re looking for some way out. They’re grasping at straws.”
But they’re also smart, he added. Barber said he told homeless men staying at the mission about the scam. Some had heard about the scam over the past few days while the others learned and added it as another piece of information needed to survive.
Barber predicted that by Thursday evening, Lincoln’s entire homeless community would know about the scam and the market for patsies would dry up.
“Once the word goes out, it goes really, really fast,” he said. “The shelf life on this thing is about zero.”
Reach Jonathan Edwards at 402-473-7395 or jedwards@journalstar.com. Follow him at twitter.com/LJSedwards.
