The Laborer Who Wasn't

Forged checks for $28 were passed last Saturday on Dege Miller, Rhodes Bros., and Herman Letter. The checks bore what was supposed to be the signature of J. K. Bonnell, the well-known Tacoma contractor. Two of the checks were drawn on the Lumbermen’s National bank and one on the London & San Francisco bank. The forger went to the firms named, bought a small bill of goods of each, and tendered the checks in payment. In each case the cash balance was handed to the purchaser. In no case did the bill for the goods amount to over $3. The man who passed the checks looked like a well-to-do laboring man, and as the checks appeared to have been issued by Mr. Bonnell in payment for labor, they were all the more easily cashed. The forger bought only such articles as a laboring man would be expected to buy. The same day a forged check for $10, drawn on the London & San Francisco bank, was passed on Frank Snyder. All the work on the checks was cleverly done and would almost deceive an expert.