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Thieves steal check from Duluth animal rescue, drain accounts
Thieves stole tens of thousands of dollars from a local nonprofit that cares animals and helps them get adopted. Police say s check fraud scheme in Duluth drained Planned Pethood's bank account.
DULUTH, Ga. - A local nonprofit was the target of a check fraud scheme. It started with a stolen check, in a matter of days Planned PEThood in Duluth had their checking account wiped out.
The mission of Planned PEThood in Duluth is to help pets and the people who care for them. They handle rescues, do adoptions, have a wellness clinic, trap and neuter community cats, and have a low cost and free spay and neuter program.
"We've done 81,000 spay and neuters since our inception in 2010. That's made a huge difference to the dog and cat population," said Elizabeth Burgner, co-founder of Planned PEThood.
Burgner says in late March, someone stole a check the nonprofit sent through the mail. Before they knew it, their account was empty.
"Someone stole a check, took the information off of that check, made fake check stock and were able to cash 10 checks totaling almost $60,000," said Burgner.
The checks were written for thousands of dollars each and made out to people Burgner says she has never heard of.
It was money donated to the nonprofit that was supposed to go to help the animals.
"This money is used to feed our dogs and cats, keep our lights on and pay our surgical staff," said Burgner.
Burgner says their bank is working with them, and has reimbursed them the money, but it has created a mess.
"Hours and hours of administrative work, unlinking our debit and credit accounts, opening a new account, notifying our vendors, ordering new checks and adding protection to the new account.
Burgner says it is infuriating and she wants to know who is behind the thefts.
"I'm mad. I would love to know who did this and prosecute them," said Burgner.