Forgery Suspect Foils Police With Phony Name

Her name is Charlotte Redd. Maybe.

About 30 warrants for Redd and her many aliases have been issued across Texas for the check-forgery suspect. She was sought in cities and by the U.S. Secret Service.

But it was the tiny, 21-member Castle Hills Police Department that caught the suspect. But not for long.

The police said Redd and two other women tried cashing a stolen check Monday at a bank across the street from the Castle Hills police headquarters.

The police say three women gave the teller at a NationsBank a stolen check for $2,460. The alert teller discovered the check was stolen and called the police, who responded immediately, Detective Mark Pardaen said.

After a brief chase, the three women were arrested. Officers who searched their car found piles of stolen checks and credit cards, rubber stamps used to endorse the checks and identification cards from Texas, Kansas, New Mexico and Oklahoma.

“It’s very obvious this was a well-thought-out operation,” Pardaen said. “They knew what they were doing. They had all the tools for forgery.”

But the Castle Hills police didn’t suspect the woman they arrested was Redd. She told them her name was Shonda Shiloh.

The other two women identified themselves as Acresha Furlough and Vianna Franklin. Those names probably were made up as well, officials said.

By the time a Secret Service agent saw a picture of the woman and identified her as Redd, she and the other two women had posted bond and disappeared.

Secret Service agent Manny Velasquez said that if authorities had known who the suspect was, they could have served all 30 warrants against.

Redd caught the attention of federal agents five months ago during an investigation of a counterfeiting operation, Velasquez said.

NationsBank had been hit several times by the trio for a total of $250,000, the police said.

“She gets away with it,” Velasquez said. “She does the same thing: She’s arrested, gives a false name, goes before a magistrate, they give a very low bond, she bonds out, and boom, she’s gone.”