Mobile police arrested a fugitive from Texas after two stolen vehicles parked in his front yard led officers to a cache of counterfeit checks and the materials used to produce them.
The Mobile Police Department said officers received a tip that the Texas fugitive was in the area and began building a case. “We began to set up surveillance and monitor his residence,” said MPD Public Information Officer Terence Perkins. “What gave us the insight to get the search warrant was he had two stolen vehicles parked in his front yard.”
The search warrant
The warrant was executed in the 100 block of Dunn Avenue by the department’s Financial Crimes Detail, with assistance from the Intelligence Unit. Inside, according to a police news release, officers discovered numerous counterfeit checks, check stock, check-printing software and all the components needed to manufacture fraudulent checks.
Investigators also recovered identifying documents and debit cards belonging to several other people, suggesting the operation extended beyond a single victim.
The charges
Based on the evidence, police arrested 53-year-old Morris Mosley. He was charged with two counts of first-degree receiving stolen property, two counts of identity theft and 25 counts of second-degree criminal possession of a forged instrument.
Mosley was also wanted in Texas on a series of felony charges, including burglary, two counts of forgery of financial instruments, an additional forgery count, a parole violation and theft. The out-of-state warrants added another layer to a case that began, in effect, with two cars that did not belong to him sitting in plain view.
How a small detail cracked the case
The arrest illustrated how a seemingly minor observation, stolen vehicles left in a front yard, can give investigators the probable cause needed to obtain a search warrant and uncover a far larger scheme. Financial crimes of this kind often operate quietly, relying on printed checks and stolen identities that leave little visible trace. In this instance, the visible presence of stolen property provided the opening.
The volume of charges, particularly the 25 counts tied to forged instruments, pointed to an operation with the capacity to produce fraudulent checks in quantity. The recovery of check stock, printing software and the personal information of multiple individuals suggested that others could have been victimized had the operation continued undisturbed.
For the Mobile Police Department’s Financial Crimes Detail, the case represented the kind of methodical work that turns a single tip into a substantial arrest. By combining surveillance with the physical evidence in plain sight, officers were able to secure a warrant, seize the equipment and take a wanted man into custody.
Mosley faced prosecution in Mobile County on the local charges while remaining subject to the outstanding warrants in Texas, ensuring that the case would follow him well beyond the Dunn Avenue residence where it began.