A 41-year-old Odessa man was arrested Saturday after admitting he tried to cash a $2,000 check he found on the ground.
According to an Odessa Police Department report, officers received a 911 call around noon Saturday from the Quick Cash on North Andrews Highway about a man in the drive-through who was trying to cash a fraudulent check. When officers arrived, the Ford F-250 took off at a high rate of speed and the officers lost it.
When officers went back to the business, a clerk told them that a woman had gotten out of the car prior to their arrival, the report stated. The clerk also gave police a check and a paper Texas driver’s license that had been altered to match the name of the man to whom the check was issued.
Officers tracked down the woman who had gotten out of the car and she provided police with several names, including that of Jacob Paredez, the report stated.
Officers found the pickup truck, which had been reported stolen in Lubbock, abandoned in an alley behind the 1400 block of Maple and inside, they found paperwork belonging to Paredez, the report stated. Dispatchers found a picture of Paredez, who has an eyeball tattooed on his neck, that matched the altered paper driver’s license.
After learning a woman was supposed to meet up with Paredez at the Lowes on 17th Street and Grant Avenue to get her purse out of the Ford, police went to the store, found Paredez walking through the parking lot and arrested him, the report stated.
Paredez admitted to using the forged paper license to try to cash the check and to fleeing from police, according to the report.
Paredez was arrested on suspicion of forgery by passing, tampering with government records, evading arrest with a vehicle and unauthorized use of a motor vehicle. The tampering and evading charges are third-degree felonies punishable by two to 10 years in prison. The forgery charge is a misdemeanor and the motor vehicle charge is a state jail felony punishable by six months to two years in prison.
Paredez remains in the Ector County jail on surety bonds totaling $42,500, but he’s also being held in a Lubbock County case in which he’s charged with unlawful possession of a firearm by a felon.
