A Summerfield woman who claimed to have once cleaned houses in The Villages was arrested Thursday after being accused of trying to cash fraudulent checks at a Belleview bank.
A Belleview Police officer was called to the Regions Bank at 10715 S U.S. Hwy. 441 and was told that a woman later identified as 30-year-old Stacey Steady had attempted to cash two personal checks that were drawn on a Citizens First Bank account in the amounts of $645 and $400. The memo lines on the checks read “rent” and “loan,” a Belleview Police report states.
During her first visit to the bank, Steady was told that the account wasn’t active and she left without taking the check. She returned a second time and told the teller she was in a rush and wanted $200 in cash and $200 deposited into her account. She again left the check behind when leaving the bank and the teller said her behavior and actions “were uneasy both times she attempted to cash the checks,” the report says.
The officer then went to Steady’s residence in the 4800 block of SE 148th Place in Summerfield. He asked if she had been to Belleview recently and she said she had been to Regions Bank earlier in the week to cash checks she received from “Will” for doing yardwork at a property in Weirsdale, the report says.
Steady claimed to have messages on her cell phone from “Will” but wasn’t able to produce them or any contact information. She said she didn’t know who the checks were from but thought everything was fine because she had received them from “Will” for the work she had done. She remained adamant that she didn’t know the checks were fraudulent and claimed she left the bank twice because “she was tired and did not want to wait around,” the report says.
When told she was being arrested, the officer said Steady attempted to push by him and go back inside her residence. She then refused to put her hands behind her back and officers were forced to take her to the ground to put her in handcuffs, the report says.
Steady was transported to the Marion County Jail and charged with two counts of uttering a forged instrument and resisting without violence. She was released early Friday morning on $5,000 bond and her next court date hasn’t yet been set, jail records show.
