Duke Police Charge Alleged Bookstore Bandit
Suspect Wrote Bogus Checks, Returned Items for Cash
The man shopped at Duke University Stores, writing checks for sweatpants, hooded sweatshirts and textbooks. Soon after the purchases, he returned the merchandise for cash.
But the bank checks Tony Brown is accused of passing since January were bad -- written against a closed account in Kentucky .
On Tuesday, Duke Police charged Brown, 36, of Greenville , N.C. , with nine counts of obtaining property by false pretense. The refunds at Duke stores totaled about $1,500.
Police say Brown is also a suspect in similar cases at bookstores at UNC-Chapel Hill and UNC-Greensboro, Winston-Salem State University , North Carolina State University in Raleigh and East Carolina University in Greenville . Police at ECU also charged Brown.
"He was allegedly writing these checks all over the place," said Duke Police Investigator Anthony Rush.
Rush began investigating the bookstore swaps in February after learning that the bank checks used at Duke came from closed accounts. The checks had different names, addresses and phone numbers.
In one refund at Duke, Brown told a store clerk that he was returning merchandise for a student who had to drop out of school because her father was ill.
Rush called other college campuses, including ECU, which at the time did not know a man had been passing bad checks and receiving refunds at its bookstore.
"I told them that I had received copies of checks that he had written to them and explained to them what he had done at Duke," Rush said.
ECU police dug through its incident reports and learned that a man had been passing bad checks and receiving refunds at its store, police said. Soon, Rush and an ECU police detective were working together and trading suspect photos.
"It was just a matter of figuring out which place he was going to next," Rush said.
Within a week, Brown returned to the ECU bookstore, police said. A clerk recognized the man and notified police. He was arrested.
Duke Police Major Phyllis Cooper said it was Rush calling other campuses that helped lead to an arrest.
"Officer Rush reaching out to other campuses to share information, as well as people calling the police as soon as possible, are what helped solve this case," Cooper said. "This was a great multi-agency, community policing effort."