Checks Stolen From Bank Used for Cars : Crime: Costa Mesa’s Craig Reese is among victims of swindlers who offered pilfered cashier’s checks to buy Honda Accords from Southland sellers.

COSTA MESA —  Craig Reese took all the precautionary steps needed to sell a car.

He placed an ad in August in a newspaper, met a prospective buyer at his office in Costa Mesa and accepted a cashier’s check after the sale. Everything went smoothly and he deposited the check in his account.

But when Reese, 30, went to draw money from his account a week later, the cashier’s check he was issued bounced.

How could a cashier’s check bounce? Investigators had an answer for Reese. Bank officials told him he had received one of seven stolen blank cashier’s checks from a First Interstate Bank in Los Angeles.

“I told [the buyer] I wanted a cashier’s check from a large bank,” said Reese, a Newport Beach resident. “And when he said First Interstate, I thought it was OK. . . . It looked like a legitimate cashier’s check. It had the carbon paper and the bold print on it.”

Oddly, the stolen checks were forged by swindlers who purchased a series of Honda Accords throughout Southern California, a bank official said.

Ken Preston, a spokesman for First Interstate, said the checks were reported missing Aug. 10, the day Reese sold his car. The stolen checks, in amounts ranging from $8,800 to $9,700, turned up in the hands of car sellers who thought they had closed a deal when they handed over the car keys.

The car owners, like Reese, were left empty-handed.

“I had a big negative in my account,” Reese said. “I had a $110 overdraft. There were bounced checks everywhere. I had checks out to pay my rent, my new car, my mom. I must have had a total of $12,000 in checks out.”

His bank helped him to cover the debts by giving him a $10,000 loan, he said.

Costa Mesa Police Detective Bill Redmond, who is handling Reese’s case, said thefts of Hondas and Acuras “are very common” because it is easy to strip and sell the parts.

And although Reese had sold his car in a cautious manner, he was unlucky, Redmond added.

“He did everything he could,” he said. “Cashier’s checks are usually pretty safe. But these guys were just very sophisticated. They apparently wanted to get the titles and paperwork. These people are just really good at what they do.”

Police detectives said they infrequently see car thefts where fraudulent cashier’s checks are issued.

“Most of the time they simply steal the car,” Redmond said. “Those checks are tough to steal out of the banks. It must have been from someone inside.”

The FBI is investigating how the blank cashier’s checks were taken from the bank, Preston said. He declined to elaborate.

“They were stolen from a branch in Los Angeles but we don’t know how,” he said.

All but one of the checks were used to buy only Honda Accords in Costa Mesa and in Los Angeles County, including Lakewood, Chatsworth and Topanga, officials said. One stolen check remains outstanding, he said.

Police have not recovered the stolen Hondas because the thieves usually strip off the vehicle identification numbers. Redmond said he believes the stolen cars were probably advertised in the classifieds and sold to the public.

To avoid buying a stolen used car, he advised that the public to be suspicious of ads with pager numbers.

“And if you have to meet them on a street corner to see the car, don’t do it. It’s better to meet them at their home or work,” he said.

And when possible, make the car transaction with cash, he added.