A Haines City woman has been arrested on grand theft and forgery charges after she presented fraudulent money orders at a local bank.
Winter Haven police say on Aug. 15 at approximately 12:30 p.m., 31 year-old Janelly Almeida opened an account with CenterState Bank at their branch located at 7722 Lucerne Park Rd. in Winter Haven. Almeida presented two USPS money orders totaling $1,870.
Six days later, bank officials were notified by their internal fraud division that the money orders were fraudulent. Winter Haven Police were notified and immediately contacted the USPS Postmaster who was shown the original money orders. The Postmaster, Jessie Hobson, confirmed that the money orders were fraudulent.
According to Winter Haven police, she made two withdraws from the time the account was opened until the time the fraudulent money orders were discovered. One such withdraw was on August 18 and the other was on August 19. Video obtained through the bank identified the account holder as Almeida as well as identifying her as the person withdrawing the money from the account. Multiple attempts were made to locate Almeida, with negative results.
On Tuesday, detectives located Almeida at her Haines City home where she was taken into custody. Almeida was booked into the Polk County Jail and charged with two counts of uttering forged document and grand theft. She remains in jail Wednesday morning on $7,000 bond.
