Allegedly stolen stimulus check leads to arrest
A local felon on parole was arrested Tuesday at an area bank after allegedly depositing a stolen stimulus check and later returning to draw funds out.
Alexander Ray Smith, 27, who lists an Albert Pike Road address, was taken into custody shortly before 1 p.m. at Regions Bank,
900 Albert Pike, and charged with felony counts of second-degree forgery, punishable by up to 10 years in prison, and possession of a controlled substance, meth, punishable by up to six years.
Smith remained in custody Thursday in lieu of a $6,000 bond and had a parole hold on him and was set to appear Wednesday in Garland County District Court.
According to the probable cause affidavit, shortly after noon, Hot Springs police responded to the bank regarding a fraud in progress and spoke to the manager and Smith, who was still there.
The manager said she had previously called corporate security with suspicions about a stimulus check for
$1,200 that was deposited on Saturday by Smith. She noted the U.S. Treasury check was listed as payable to a female and was signed on the back along with numerous other names “that had been either whited out or partially erased.”
When Smith came into the bank Tuesday to withdraw cash from the account, the manager asked him how he came across the check. He reportedly stated a friend had given it to him, but then changed his story. He told police
he found the check and signed his name to it.
He claimed he went to the address listed on the check to find the female to return the check, but when he couldn’t locate her he “put it into his account so he could pay fines.”
Smith was taken into custody and the check was seized but the affidavit noted that as of Tuesday officers had not been able to make contact with the owner of the check.
Once he got to the detention center, Smith reportedly told Officer Jason Greene he “had something” in his jacket pocket and Greene located two baggies with 1.1 gram of what later tested positive for meth.