Police search motel in identity theft inquiry

Spokane Police’s Fraud Unit executed a search warrant Wednesday afternoon at a motel off Sunset Boulevard as part of an investigation that started in Bonners Ferry, Idaho.

Inside the room, detectives found two computers, check-making materials and several identifications showing the same picture with multiple names, Sgt. Jason Hartman said.

Investigators also found marijuana, methamphetamine and packaging and weighing materials for drugs, police spokesman Dick Cottam said in a press release.

Spokane Police were alerted about the room as part of an identity theft investigation by the Bonners Ferry Police Department, Hartman said. In that case, three men and a woman were arrested over the weekend.

The four suspects are 40-year-old Trena Ann Ireland, 44-year-old Theodore J. Sprenger, 38-year-old James Delaney Thompson, also known as Percy D. Razo, and 48-year-old Corky Daryl Fine, also known as Darrel A. Kramer, Cottam said.

Each faces charges in Spokane for identity theft, forgery, unlawful possession and production of payment instruments, and possession of controlled substances.

“There’s a good chance they did this in Spokane and moved up to greener pastures, at least for a while,” Hartman said.

The suspects had been using fraudulent checks, written for $500 or $1,000, to get cash from the Kootenai River Inn and Casino, Hartman said.

A security guard at the casino noticed that the same man had been using checks with different names and alerted Bonners Ferry Police, Hartman said.

The Spokane motel room, 1508 S. Rustle St., was unoccupied when detectives raided it at about 4 p.m. Ireland rented it through Saturday, Hartman said.

Detectives will now search the computer hard drives for additional evidence. More charges could follow, Hartman said.