More about the case of the stolen wallet
As we were sitting on the patio enjoying a glass of wine last night, we heard a loud pounding on the back door. To my surprise, it was a police officer, looking for Ann. He said a woman tried to purchase some furniture at the Big Lots store in south Little Rock with a check and used Ann’s driver’s license for identification. When the clerk questioned the woman about not looking like the picture on the driver’s license, she ran away. Big Lots called the police, who took the license and check.
The policeman showed Ann the license that was used, and, of course, it was hers. He asked if he could keep it for evidence. Since Ann already had another license, she agreed. The officer said he searched the police database for Ann’s name looking for a report of a stolen driver’s license, but for some unknown reason he didn’t find the report about her stolen wallet. So, his report is a new case, but he said he would link it to the previous report. He said he asked for and got special permission from his supervisor to come to our house, because west Little Rock is not part of his territory. I’m glad he came to discuss the case with us face-to-face.
We asked if we could see the check. He said we could see it but we couldn’t touch it. He put on rubber gloves to handle the check. I wanted to make sure that it wasn’t another check from Ann’s mother’s account. But, it wasn’t. The check looked authentic to me. It had Ann’s name and address in the upper left corner. The officer said that on close inspection there were some indications that it was a fake—slightly misaligned margins, for example. The woman signed the check, Marilyn Bridges. So, the woman didn’t even try to copy Ann’s signature. Ann usually signs Ann Bridges, and that how she signed her driver’s license.
We asked if the woman who tried to use the check was black, because the woman who distracted Ann while looking for the Chow-Chow was black. The officer said the woman who tried to pass the check at Big Lots was white. Who knows how she got Ann’s driver’s license.
