Las Vegas man arrested in check fraud, thefts

Jace Radke

Thursday, Jan. 14, 1999 | 11:21 a.m.

A Las Vegas man has been arrested in connection with charges of check fraud and mail theft involving 500 separate cases.

Mickey Davis, age not available, was arrested on Jan. 7 on charges of burglary and using a forged instrument, Metro police said.

The Department's Problem Scanning Unit in cooperation with valley postal inspectors obtained a search warrant for Davis' apartment at 1500 Stardust Road, and found about 100 blank personal checks.

"It looks like there was a group of people taking mail from unsecured boxes in the rural areas of town," Sgt. Scott Killebrew said. "They would recover personal checks being used for bill payments, wash them and then write them out to themselves and cash them."

Checks can be washed with substances like break fluid, and then dried so that they are blank.

When questioned, Davis told police that the checks were successfully cashed about 75 percent of the time after being washed.

It is believed that Davis washed the checks in his apartment and then sent others to cash them, police said.

Davis admitted to over 500 cases of mail theft, which are all under investigation, and police are searching for other suspects in the case, Killebrew said.