Nov 29 – An Arab man who knowingly wrote a bad check to buy a $50,000 Subaru in April was charged last Friday – after his release from the Madison County Jail – with writing a bad check to to purchase a $36,653 Toyota in Decatur, according to Huntsville and Decatur police.
“This is not the first time that a check that was later determined to be ‘worthless’ has been used to purchase vehicles in Decatur, but I wouldn’t consider it common,” Detective Michael Ferguson of the Decatur Police Department said in an email.
“In the almost eight years that I have been specifically investigating fraud-related crimes, this is, if I remember correctly, the fourth time.”
Landon David Perkins, 25, is charged with first-degree theft of property, a class B misdemeanor, in Morgan County and remained in jail Wednesday in lieu of $20,000 bond, records showed.
Perkins was booked into the Madison County Jail on June 10 after he “knowingly and through deception” obtained $50,000 in property from Landers McClarty Subaru in Huntsville on April 5, according to an affidavit from a Huntsville police investigator sworn on May 30.
Perkins was charged in Madison County with first-degree theft of property for stealing a 2024 Subaru Forester, court records showed. He pleaded guilty last Friday and received a 46-month suspended sentence with three years’ probation, according to the plea agreement. He was also ordered to pay $50,000 in restitution to the car dealer.
According to Kelley Blue Book, the 2024 Subaru Forester costs $38,740.
Prior to Perkins’ arrest in Madison County, he knowingly wrote a bad check to purchase a 2025 Toyota Camry from Serra Toyota in Decatur on June 4, according to an affidavit sworn by Ferguson.
Perkins was transferred directly from the Madison County Jail to the Decatur Police Department after his release last Friday, where he was served with an arrest warrant before being transferred to the Morgan County Jail.
A judge’s handwritten note on Decatur’s arrest warrant states that Perkins “faces charges on at least eight other similar charges,” though The Decatur Daily could find no record of additional property theft cases against Perkins.
Perkins had not hired or appointed an attorney for the charges against Decatur as of Wednesday.
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Checks
About a week after Perkins purchased the Toyota in Decatur, his check was flagged as coming from a “frozen/blocked” account, according to Ferguson’s statement.
Ferguson determined that Perkins had opened the checking account with a $32 deposit the day he bought the car and closed the account three days later, “before the check bounced,” according to the affidavit. Perkins used his Alabama driver’s license as identification during the transaction.
Ferguson said in the affidavit that he obtained surveillance photos of Perkins opening and closing the checking account, as well as photos showing him at the car dealership.
Arab police found Perkins driving the Toyota on June 10 and arrested him on the outstanding warrant in Huntsville related to the Subaru, the affidavit said.
Ferguson said the Morgan County District Attorney’s Bad Check Unit investigates the “vast majority” of bad check cases, with “large amounts” being added each year.
“However, there are certain circumstances that determine whether there is a criminal act or not,” he said. “For example, obtaining checks on a new account opened with a minimum deposit, and then writing checks for large amounts, knowing there are no funds in the account to cover the said purchase.”
Ferguson said law enforcement, in lieu of the Worthless Checks Unit, also investigates all cases of forged or altered checks.
Nancy Dennis, director of public relations for the Alabama Retail Association, said many businesses are no longer accepting checks.
“Really, a lot of the fraud has moved to credit and debit cards,” she said. “The fraud will follow whatever type of payment you use. Whatever payment method there is, people will find a way to undermine it.”
Ferguson said that while he knows merchants sometimes don’t have the luxury of holding onto items until a check clears, which can take up to 10 business days, there are ways merchants can protect themselves from property theft crimes.
“Accepting checks at face value is not allowed, especially if they are large ticket items,” he said. “Even check if the software some sellers use is not 100% accurate. The software, as far as I know, only determines if it is an active account, but cannot verify the availability of funds.”
– david.gambino@decaturdaily.com or 256-340-2438.
