Belgrade State Bank stops identity theft
A New York City man, Theo D. Cooke, was arrested on May 23 on suspicion of identity theft at Belgrade State Bank in Potosi. According to a probable cause statement From Potosi Police Department, Cooke applied online for a $70,000 automobile loan using the identification information of a California resident.
According to the statement, on May 9, Cooke allegedly applied for a loan online with Belgrade using the information of a dental surgeon from California. The statement says that Cooke claimed he had recently moved to Cape Girardeau and he worked for a company based in Kansas City, Missouri. Cooke was required to provide identification and paycheck information as part of the online application. Police say Cooke supplied a California driver’s license showing his own picture.
The probable cause statement says Cooke provided three weeks of paychecks and Belgrade became suspicious when they discovered the check number on each of the three provided paychecks was the same. The report states Belgrade conducted a credit report check as standard practice for loan approval and discovered the identity Cooke presented did not have an address in any Missouri City and is a dental surgeon with a practice in California. Police say Belgrade notified them of suspicious activity on May 17.
Potosi police say they were able to locate the correct driver’s license for the dental surgeon. The information and photo on the driver’s license Cooke allegedly used with the online application did not match the driver’s license on record with the state of California. Police say the dental surgeon from California is a white man with gray hair and Cooke is a Black man with brown hair. Investigators from the police department contacted the dental surgeon and obtained images of him. The images reportedly matched the driver’s license provided by the state of California and not the one provided by Cooke. The dental surgeon also reportedly claimed he did not submit the online loan application.
On May 23, Cooke allegedly traveled from New York to Potosi and attempted to obtain the money from the loan application. The report states Cooke met with a Belgrade loan officer and gave the false California driver’s license used to submit the online application. When the police arrived to speak with Cooke, he reportedly told investigators his real name and gave them his real identification which was in a backpack he carried. Livescan rapid identification technology was used to verify Cooke’s identity.
Investigators reportedly found another driver’s license in Cooke’s backpack from Oregon which showed a picture of Cooke with information belonging to a white man and not Cooke. Along with the driver’s license was a Bank of America credit card with the same name as the one on the Oregon driver’s license.
Police reportedly conducted a background check on Cooke and found a lengthy history of fraud charges. Investigators claim Cooke is a flight risk due to his alleged possession of multiple false identifications and lack of ties to the Potosi area.
According to Missouri Case Net, Cooke is currently held in the St. Francois County jail awaiting a bond reduction hearing in June. Bond is currently set at $250,000, cash-only, with the special condition that Cooke wear a GPS monitoring device and surrender his passport.
Theo Cooke
Jeannie Barton-Northrup is a reporter for the Daily Journal.
