93-3-3-WMR Audio on Demand presents the Preston and Steve show podcast.

And now, Preston and Steve's news update with Kathy Romano.

Today is Wednesday, May 11th. Good morning, Kathy.

Good morning in the news this morning. Check fraud is now rampant all across the region,

hitting every county and

every person who uses the mail, according to investigators. Lower Moreland Township police say

thieves are doing everything from driving through wealthy neighborhoods, digging through the trash,

to using fishing tools to get into mailboxes outside of the post office. It's all in an effort

to steal and cast checks in other people's names. Police believe the thieves search the income of the neighborhood and then go in and hit. In December of last year, one resident mailed two checks, but they were never delivered. A month later, he got a notice that someone tried to cash a check for $13,000. The thieves are getting more sophisticated, recruiting people on social media sites and paying them to use their own bank accounts to cash these fraudulent checks. They're saying, like, they'll contact them on social media and say, hey, you can make $100, just cash this check. I'll, you know, I'll take the money, you get your $100, and then you never hear from me again. And they said people are doing it. That's crazy. Officials say there are steps that you can take to protect yourself. They say definitely start shredding any documentation with personal information in it because

they're going through people's trash cans. Officials also recommend keeping a record of who you sent

your checks to and when. They say if you suspect anything suspicious, reach out to officers.

You know, my wife stopped putting, we have an actual mailbox two blocks away, which she'll walk to and use and have stopped doing that because this stuff is on the rise so much. Yeah, they're saying if that red, like, you're putting up a red flag. If you pull that red flag out on your mailbox because they know there's something in there that's being sent and, you know, likely it's a check. Yeah. police say they are searching for a suspect wanted in connection with a burglary that took place at the ritz carlton hotel earlier this month on may 3rd at about 120 a.m. police say a man entered the ritz carlton hotel located on south broad street authorities say the suspect forced open a basement door and went through the loss prevention office and locker room.

The suspect took numerous items and then fled the area, according to police.

Police described the suspect as a man with a thin build wearing black sweatpants with a white

stripe down the side and a light colored shirt.

Anyone with information on the incident is asked to contact police.

Two beach houses have fallen into the waves along North Carolina's coast, U.S.

National Park Service officials said in a statement Tuesday, the unoccupied homes were located

along Ocean Drive in the outer base community of Rodanth. The Park Service confirmed both

collapses Tuesday and closed off the areas around the houses. Debris from the first fallen house

was spreading widely. Officials from the

Cape Hatteras National Seashore, which is part of the Park Service, said that they will be working

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