Authorities are investigating two unrelated cases in which someone recently defrauded a business with checks that were either forged or written on a closed account. Sheriff deputies are looking for a woman whose name hasn't been released, after Foothills Grocery in Thurmond reported receiving eleven checks from her in the past several weeks, that turned out to be drawn on a closed account at First Community Bank. The checks total more than 750-dollars.

Wilkesboro Police are looking for a man who identifies himself as Larry Bethea, and has bee cashing checks at several Food Lion stores in the region, all of them turning out to be counterfeit. The man gave a clerk at the Food Lion on Westwood Lane a check for 425-dollars back in October, and store personnel learned yesterday that it was a fake. When he cashed the check, the man identifying himself as Bethea gave the clerk a North Carolina driver's license, which does not match his name. He's given other license numbers in other stores. One of the licenses comes back to an address in Elkin. The man is seen on store video during the entire check-cashing scam, and deputies have a fairly detailed description: a black male about 5-feet, 10-inches tall, with a light build, weighing about 160 pounds. He was wearing a white dress shirt and navy dress slacks at the time, along with a pair of glasses. The same man has been seen on security video at other Food Lion stores doing the same thing. The investigation continues.

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