Collier County sheriff’s deputies arrested an east coast woman Wednesday on charges she tried to cash a counterfeit check at a Golden Gate supermarket.Crystal Lafay Johnson, 22, of Miami, was charged with uttering a forged instrument.
Reports say Johnson tried to cash a bad check at Sweetbay Supermarket, 4995 Golden Gate Parkway. The check was drawn on the account of Williamson R.D. & Associates of Fort Myers and made payable to Johnson. Further investigation revealed the routing number on the check did not match the name on the check.
Store employees had been alerted earlier that counterfeit checks with that company’s name and address had been passed at other area Sweetbay supermarkets, investigators said.
Johnson told investigators that she was an employee of Williamson R.D. & Associates and that the address on the check, near Fort Myers beach, was her home address. However, she was unable to provide investigators specific details about the location where she lived such as main thoroughfares and nearby businesses. She was also unable to tell them the route she traveled to work.
When investigators asked her why she was cashing the check at this particular Sweetbay, she said she believed she was still in Fort Myers and “It was close,” according to the arrest report.
