Jones County Woman Allegedly Cashes Stolen Checks from Elderly Baldwin Man

GRAY, Georgia (41NBC/WMGT) – A Jones County woman is out of jail on bond after allegedly cashing stolen checks from an 86-year-old man.

43-year-old Rhonda Johnson worked odd jobs for an elderly Baldwin County man for a few months.

During that time, that’s when the Baldwin County sheriff’s office says she cashed stolen checks worth thousands of dollars.

The victim’s family saw something strange in his bank account activity. That’s when they called authorities.

“They brought it to our attention. As we began to look, found out where the checks were cashed over in Jones County,” Captain Brad King, with the Baldwin County Sheriff’s Department, said.

King says Johnson was getting paid by the victim, but not in those large amounts.

“As it progressed, the numbers on the checks began to increase so it was just a matter of time, before they wound up with a pretty severe problem,” King said.

Authorities say Johnson came to the Old Clinton Gas Station on Gray Hwy, where she cashed five checks that cost almost $2000, that’s when the Jones County Sheriff’s Department had to step in.

“We reached out to the folks at the store, and ask them to notify us if this suspect came in and they actually called us and she was there at the store at that time trying to cash another check,” Investigator Kenny Gleaton, with the Jones County Sheriff’s Department, said.

Gleaton says within minutes sheriff’s deputies were on the scene and arrested Johnson.

He says a team effort between sheriff’s departments is what helped get Johnson behind bars.

“Criminals don’t really respect county lines or boundaries or whatever they need to to commit their acts, and we find often we have folks that might reside in one jurisdiction commit crimes in another one,” Gleaton said.

Johnson is being charged with 5 counts of fourth degree forgery.

A court date for her has not been set.