Man charged with passing bogus check
A Centre County man is accused of passing a $34,222 bum check last month to steal two used vehicles at a Penn Township car dealership, authorities said.
The alleged check bouncer, James B. Schubert, 59, of Philipsburg, was arrested Tuesday at Cook Forest State Park in Forest County — but it wasn't easy.
He managed to flee state police and avoid capture for several hours after running into the vast woods, according to investigators. But a park ranger eventually caught him walking along a road.
A Penn Township police officer later drove up and got the defendant, returning with him to Butler County.
Schubert was arraigned on charges, and he is being held in the Butler County Prison in lieu of $50,000 bond. He is charged with felony counts of theft by unlawful taking and theft by deception and forgery, and a misdemeanor count of bad checks.
Penn Township police officer Stephen Setnar said Schubert on Aug. 27 purchased two vehicles — a 2015 Jeep Compass and a 2017 Lincoln Continental — from Mike Kelly Chevrolet Cadillac on Route 8.
The suspect reportedly bought the vehicles for two friends, and allegedly paid for them with the bad check. It was later determined, Setnar said, that the check was written on a closed account.
The dealership tried contacting the defendant by telephone and by certified letter in hopes of getting him to pay for the vehicles, but to no avail.
On Monday, Setnar obtained an arrest warrant for Schubert, who has an extensive criminal record with a number of convictions for theft by deception and bad checks.
The officer eventually received information that Schubert liked to frequent campgrounds in northern Pennsylvania. He notified state police of the arrest warrant for the defendant. The suspect ultimately was traced to the Shiloh Resort in Cook Forest.
But before troopers could nab him, Schubert made his getaway Tuesday, running into the woods. For hours, state police, aided by a tracking dog, searched unsuccessfully for Schubert.
Their luck changed about 4:30 p.m. when a park ranger happened to see him walking on the side of a road, and took him into custody.
Setnar praised the efforts of troopers and rangers.
“If not for the Pennsylvania State Police and the rangers doing their due diligence of being active and looking for this guy, we never would have got him,” he said.
