A malfunctioning brake light led to the arrest of a Hixson woman on multiple felony charges, Friday afternoon.
Bonnie Elaine Gabbard, 36, of a Greendale Way address, was charged with Forgery, Criminal Simulation, Theft under $500 and Identity Theft Trafficking. She was jailed under a $6,000 bond and is due to appear in East Ridge Municipal Court on May 2.
Police reports state that Gabbard is currently on felony probation for Forgery.
According to an affidavit of complaint, a police officer stopped a 1990 Honda that Gabbard was driving on Friday afternoon because a brake light was out. When the officer spoke with Gabbard, she recognized a passenger in the front seat as a “known IV narcotics user.” The passenger told the officer that she was under the influence and admitted to having syringes in the vehicle.
According to the report, police searched the vehicle and located syringes in the woman’s purse. A further search of the vehicle, which included Gabbard’s purse and the vehicle’s glove compartment, yielded eight personal checks belonging to people from different cities and states. The report states the checks were faded and written to multiple parties. In addition, the officer found four fraudulent business checks that had been “traced over” and lacked key security features.
Bonnie Elaine Gabbard
The report states that Gabbard was read her Miranda warning and then admitted to police that she had been receiving these checks and using brake fluid to wash out the authenticated names on the documents. The report states that Gabbard told police that she didn’t lawfully obtain the checks and never worked for any of the companies whose names appeared on the checks.
The report states that police also located several notebooks that Gabbard had that contained identifying information for multiple individuals, financial information from several companies and individuals, including routing information and PIN numbers for various banks. Officers also found fraudulent income tax return information and loan applications.
According to the report, Gabbard told police that she had been giving these checks out to different people to cash knowing that the transactions were fraudulent.
On Saturday, investigators began following up on potential victims regarding the case. Officers verified that one of the recovered personal checks was taken in a burglary in Ringgold, Georgia that happened a decade ago. Another checkbook recovered belonged to a man in Athens, Tennessee. The checkbook, the report states, was believed to have been taken during a burglary of the man’s home when he was traveling out of the country.
In addition, East Ridge officers contacted a Dalton firefighter, after recovering two of his personal checks in the items recovered from Gabbard. The man told investigators that he had no idea how Gabbard obtained his checks, and said the checks were old and from an account that he believed was inactive.
The report states that officers contacted the owner of an area burglar alarm company. Officers recovered fraudulent checks from his business bearing the company’s routing numbers that had been issued to Gabbard and another party. Police also found a handwritten document containing additional financial information linked to the business.
Officials said the investigation is continuing.
