CRANBERRY TWP — Three North Carolinians have landed in Butler County Prison, each accused of taking part in what Cranberry Township police describe as an organized attempt to steal, alter and cash checks.

Quin Alexander Malloy, 29, and Darrell Devern Thomas, 42, both of Fayetteville, N.C., as well as Leigha Justine Walker, 39, of Greensboro, N.C., face a plethora of second- and third-degree felony charges after officers allegedly found them attempting to cash a forged check.

Police arrived at a Cranberry business early in the morning Wednesday and learned that a check worth nearly $42,000 had been removed from the business' mailbox by one or more people in a blue Nissan, according to a police affidavit.

On Thursday, police in Hampton Township, Allegheny County, found the same car at a bank where an employee allegedly said Walker was trying to cash a forged check.

That check, according to police, was stolen from a Middlesex Township building on Wednesday and had been altered. As had three other checks — two from Cranberry businesses and one from Butler Health System — that hadn't belonged to the trio and were allegedly in their possession.

The police affidavit states that Walker told police she knew the checks were stolen and altered and that the three North Carolinians traveled to Pennsylvania to perpetrate those crimes.

All three face charges of second-degree felony forgery and conspiracy to commit forgery as well as third-degree felony theft by unlawful taking, conspiracy to commit theft by unlawful taking and access device fraud. Malloy, Thomas and Walker remain in Butler County Prison in lieu of $40,000 bail.