By Jessie Burchette
jburchette@salisburypost.com
LANDIS ó The check for $4,880 looked good.
A Wachovia Bank check, it was drawn on a business account in Charlotte.
And UPS had delivered it to Lloyd Bittle’s home at 510 North Chapel St.
But Bittle had some questions.
Why would someone send a $4,880 check to pay for a $1,500 radio?
Bittle’s son, Todd, had listed a radio for sale on craigslist.com.
The would-be buyer wanted Bittle to cash the check, keep $1,500, then send the radio, along with the cash for the difference ó more than $3,300.
“It looked like a good check,” Lloyd Bittle said Wednesday.
But it didn’t make sense. So he took the check to Wachovia in Kannapolis.
Employees there quickly told him it was a fake. The bank had an advisory about similar checks on a C.M. Steele Inc. account.
And then the UPS van came again, on Wednesday.
This time, a company, Boiling Enterprises, which said it was a Texas company, sent a check for $4,950 check to pay for the $1,500 radio.
Same instructions: Send the radio and the remainder of the money back.
The check was drawn on Prosperity Bank in Texas.
Lloyd Bittle filed a complaint with the Landis Police Department.
He also contacted the Post, wanting to let people know about the scheme.
He fears some elderly person might end up cashing a similar counterfeit check and then have to repay the money to the bank.