An offer to make quick cash didn’t pan out for a couple of DeKalb County residents and instead landed them behind bars.
Shawndalyn Lee and Alterreek Booker allegedly agreed to allow fraudsters access to their bank accounts to write bad checks, according to Brookhaven police. In return, they were supposed to receive “an undisclosed amount of money.”
Instead, whoever made the offer drained their accounts and left them with nothing, police spokesman Sgt. Jake Kissel said.
“Lee (and) Booker both made false police reports alleging they were robbed at gunpoint in hopes their financial institution would cover the loss,” Kissel said in a news release.
Booker, 33, of Lithonia, was the first to cry armed robbery, Kissel said. He called 911 last Friday from a grocery store on Town Boulevard and told police a group of people held him at gunpoint and demanded all of his cash.
Lee, 37, called 911 on Tuesday. The Decatur woman told officers she was forced to hand over her debit card and PIN at a bank off Briarcliff Road, according to police. The robbers emptied her account before leaving the scene, she said.
“Investigators assigned to the cases quickly uncovered the would-be victims of these two very similar cases were in fact part of a fraudulent scheme” which ultimately left them empty-handed, Kissel said.
Lee and Booker were arrested on charges of false report of a crime. Booker is also facing a charge of false statements or writings.
Both are being held Friday in the DeKalb County Jail.
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