D.D. Painting in Cathedral City hit hard by check scammer

Surveillance footage shows a man accused of passing bad checks at one valley business.

Making the accusation is Alane German, the office manager at D.D. Painting in Cathedral City.

“I don’t even have the words for it because it makes me so angry,” said German.

German says the scammer is passing fraudulent business checks, using her company name and address, but with the name “David Sanchez” also printed on the check.

But, German says she doesn’t know a “David Sanchez”.

“They should be scared that I’m getting their face out there, and working double time to make sure they get caught,” said German.

The office manager says since July 1st, she has taken calls from about a dozen valley businesses, telling her they have accepted the bad checks.

She says the calls are still coming in, every few days, and says the checks, mostly written to purchase building materials, total roughly $20,000.

The surveillance footage shows the man when he passed the bad check at Ace Hardware in Palm Desert, and it appears while there, he applied for the store’s rewards program.

An Ace employee tells News Channel 3 the man purchased several items, with a total value of $244.08.

“I’ve been partially playing detective, following these leads, taking the surveillance,” said German.

A surveillance photo was captured at Vista Paint in Palm Desert, where we are told the man attempted to use a fraudulent check, but ran away, when a Vista Paint employee called D.D. Painting.

“I just want the community to keep a lookout,” said German.

She is worried about the damage now to her company’s reputation, and doesn’t want anyone else to be victimized.

“My main concern is once they’re done with us, they may potentially do that with another company and hit more businesses.”

German says she’s filed reports with Cathedral City Police and the sheriff’s department in Palm Desert.

Neither agency has responded to requests for comment.