A North Carolina woman has been arrested for trying to defraud banks in northeast Iowa.
Authorities have charged 49-year-old Gloria Pantelis of Thomasville, North Carolina, with first-degree theft and identity theft over $10,000, both Class C felonies; and forgery, a Class D felony.
According to a Waverly Police media release, First Bank branches in Waverly, Plainfield, and Cedar Falls reported a female using a social security card and driver’s license information to cash checks at each of the branches on February 27. Investigators say that identification was stolen from a vehicle parked in George Wyth State Park in Waterloo in October 2022.
The Waverly Police Department and Bremer County Sheriff’s Office says Pantelis was arrested on February 28 after trying to commit the same fraud at the Plainfield branch of First Bank.
Additional charges are pending against Pantelis in Bremer County as well as Black Hawk County. Cedar Falls Police, Black Hawk County Sheriff’s Office, Waterloo Police, and the State Division of Criminal Investigation assisted with this case.
Pantelis is being held in the Bremer County Jail in Waverly on $40,000 cash-only bond in the defendant’s name only.
