FAIRVIEW PARK - a call from a local bank leads to the arrest of a Georgia man, who was recruiting the homeless to cash his fraudulent checks.
It started Tuesday afternoon when Fairview Park Police responded to a call from a Key Bank branch on W. 220th Street. There officers detained a homeless Cleveland resident, trying to pass a fake check. Further investigation determined that it was related to similar crimes in North Ridgeville and Rocky River earlier in the day.
Police from all three communities discovered homeless men involved in each incident, had been recruited by the same man out of a shelter on Lakeside Avenue in Cleveland, and that the parties responsible were staying at a motel in Fairview Park.
27 year old Gerald Rashad Blalock, of Atlanta, was stopped and arrested when police found numerous blank checks consistent with those passed in the three cities.
Blalock has waived his preliminary hearing in Rocky River Municipal Court and is currently in the Cuyahoga County jail.
(Image courtesy Fairview Park Police Department)