It was a bizarre incident with no apparent explanation. But in its wake two men landed themselves in jail July 28 after being arrested by Fayetteville police on charges of first-degree forgery.  

The unlikely set of circumstances began to unfold shortly after 11 a.m. when 38-year-old Atlanta resident David Rodriguez called 911 to report that he had been robbed.  

When Officer Paul Dalman arrived at a Kathi Avenue business, Rodriguez said he had been robbed a few blocks away in front of Heritage Bank at 440 North Jeff Davis, police reports said.  

Rodriguez said a heavy-set Hispanic male wearing dark clothing and carrying what appeared to be a gun under his shirt demanded that he give him all his money. Rodriguez said he ran westbound on Kathi Avenue and did not know in what direction the robber had fled.  

Suspicions that the situation might not be as it appeared came as Dalman told dispatchers that he would begin canvassing the area with Rodriguez. “Rodriguez seemed reluctant to get in my patrol car. I asked him how much money the suspect got from him and he told me ‘none, I just ran.’ I then asked him how much money had had on him and he told me he just cashed his work check inside the bank. I asked how much it was for and he responded, ‘about two thousand.” I thought that was suspicious that he did not know how much his check was,” Dalman’s report said.  

Dalman soon arrived at the bank with Rodriguez, entering to ask the teller if the alleged robber had been recorded on the video surveillance cameras. The police report said that as they entered a teller spotted Rodriguez and began waiving what appeared to be a check and saying, “That’s him. He just cashed a bad check for $2,300.”  

From there the story only got worse. The teller said another man, a white male in his 50s wearing a white jumpsuit and yellow hardhat had also cashed a payroll check from the same employer, MC Precast, Inc., police reports said. The two checks were consecutively numbered.  

Another officer soon located the man, 56-year-old James Schaechtel, of Atlanta, one block south of the bank. Heritage Bank employees subsequently identified Schaechtel.  

A search of Rodriguez revealed $2,341.59 in a pants pocket, Dalman said. As for Schaechtel, the $3,957.74 he received was picked up by another individual after Schaechtel dropped it on the street, the man told officers.  

Both men were charged with first-degree forgery, police spokesperson Beverly Trainor said. Rodriguez was also charged with making a false report of a crime, she said.  

Further investigation by bank staff revealed that a third check totaling $925.07, from the same employer and consecutively numbered, had been cashed the same day by a third suspect named Clarence H. Adams.  

Trainor said the department’s Criminal Investigations Division is continuing the investigation. It is unknown at present why Rodriguez called in the robbery when none had occurred. Also unknown at this time is the whereabouts of Adams or of the nearly $4,000 obtained by Schaechtel at Heritage Bank.

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