FREMONT — A 21-year-old woman has been arrested after police said she went to a grocery store twice in the same day and tried to cash identical fake documents.

Authorities have arrested Fremont resident Heena Chitkara on suspicion of burglary and possession of fraudulent documents, Detective Bill Veteran said.

Detectives also are investigating Chitkara's possible involvement in other, similar cases, he said.

Chitkara was arrested after 6 p.m. Wednesday and booked into Santa Rita county jail in Dublin after employees of a Safeway supermarket on Mission Boulevard in Warm Springs said she cashed a fake Money Gram document for $930 early in the day, then returned that evening to cash an identical document, Veteran said.

During the first incident, the store manager was unable to verify the document's authenticity, but approved it anyway, the detective said. But later in the day, the manager learned that the money order was a fake.

When Chitkara returned hours later, the manager alerted authorities, Veteran said.

Chitkara told police she'd been instructed by someone in Britain to cash three money orders, wire money back to them, and then she would receive $30 for each successful transaction, police said.

Officers searched her belongs and found a third document in the same amount, and then went to her house and found at least two other fraudulent money orders for a different company for about the same amount,


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Veteran said.

Staff writer Ben Aguirre Jr. can be reached at 510-353-7011 or baguirre@bayareanewsgroup.com.