Font ResizeSANTA CRUZ — Police on Wednesday arrested an Oakland woman who allegedly passed phony traveler's checks at businesses in Santa Cruz and eight other Northern California cities.
Leah Joan Pollack, 25, told officers she had at least 400 fake traveler's checks worth a significant amount of money. Officers recovered two checks when she was arrested Wednesday night while she returned a rental car at Oakland International Airport, according to police spokesman Zach Friend.
Pollack allegedly used $100 and $500 counterfeit checks at five Santa Cruz businesses July 18, police said. Detectives reportedly linked the fake checks by their serial numbers, then tied the crimes to Pollack, even though she used a fake ID, which matched the name on the checks.
Friend said police tracked her down through the physical descriptions given by employees at the businesses and with help from VISA, which reported that other police agencies in the region had reported similar frauds. Pollack allegedly passed counterfeit checks in Los Gatos, Richmond, Dublin, Sunnyvale, Mountain View, Berkeley, Santa Rosa and Novato, according to police. She would pay for merchandise with the bad checks, then get cash back.
Friend said he was unsure how long the alleged phony check scheme had been going on in other areas or what the total was.
Cooperation from other police agencies helped Santa Cruz detectives identify Pollack as the suspect, according to Friend.
"One of the key things to get out of this was the collaboration between the multiple agencies involved," he said. "It worked out very quickly that we were able to apprehend her."
Pollack was arrested on suspicion of passing fictitious checks and burglary and booked into County Jail early Thursday.
She was released on bail later in the day.
Friend said it hasn't been determined if Pollack will be prosecuted in each area where she is suspected of passing the counterfeit checks or if the cases will be combined.
Contact Jennifer Squires at 831-429-2449 or jsquires@santacruzsentinel.com.
