Suspects Linked To Stolen Checks

U.S. Bank officials say they’re still trying to figure out how $750,000 in check deposits disappeared shortly before Christmas.

The checks were picked up at U.S. Bank branches in Lewiston and Colfax and Rosalia, Wash., by a contract courier service, authorities say.

But instead of arriving at a processing center in Spokane, the checks “mysteriously disappeared,” FBI agents say.

The checks were found Friday in a stolen car in Spokane after federal agents and local police arrested two men following a five-hour standoff. The vehicle was one of several stolen recently from area health clubs.

The pair, David Delfs, 39, and John L. Calvert, 35, are in jail on federal firearms charges. They have been tied to a series of crimes, but have not been charged with the theft of the checks.

Authorities say Delfs and Calvert were driving the stolen car before their arrests.

“We still don’t know what happened,” Rob Stevenson, U.S. Bank vice president for operations, said Wednesday.

Bank internal security auditors and a courier manager are working with the FBI in an attempt to pinpoint how and where the loss occurred, Stevenson said.

“There’s only speculation at this point,” Stevenson said.

When bank officials realized before Christmas that the checks didn’t clear the processing center, they began an internal audit.

That task, Stevenson said, involved reviewing each teller’s daily transaction tape and reconstructing an entire day’s deposits at each bank.

“As soon as we realized there were lost checks that had never been processed, we notified police and the FBI,” Stevenson said.

After reconstructing the transactions, the bank credited every customer’s account.

“We took responsibility for it” because the deposits had been made and customers given receipts, Stevenson said.

The bank would have borne the loss or taken action against the courier’s bond if the checks had not been recovered, the U.S. Bank official said.

At least one unsuccessful attempt was made to cash one of the checks before they were recovered in the stolen car.

U.S. Bank officials were notified on Monday that the checks were found in the stolen car, Stevenson said.

At that point, the bank began another audit, comparing the checks to the reconstructed deposit tapes.

“We should have that job done by the end of this week,” Stevenson said.

When that comparison is done, bank officials will know whether any of the checks were cashed.