Quick teamwork nets alleged check thief

WASILLA -- An alleged check and credit card thief had less than two hours to enjoy the fruits of his labors before being arrested by Wasilla police officers on Tuesday.

According to reports from Wasilla Police Department, Marvin D. Donley, 41, was arrested while attempting to purchase a computer at Fred Meyer in Wasilla with a check that had been reported stolen less than an hour before.

The sequence of events that led to Donley's apprehension began with a report to the Palmer Police Department at 3:44 p.m. on Tuesday that a Palmer woman's purse had been stolen from her car while she was in the Palmer post office. The victim reported that the purse contained three credit cards.

At 4:22 p.m., Wasilla police received a report that a woman had returned to her car in the parking lot of the Wasilla post office to find a window broken out and her purse, containing a credit card, checks and cash, stolen.

Only 36 minutes following the Wasilla report, the Wells Fargo Bank located at the Parks Highway and Palmer-Wasilla Highway called WPD to report cashing a $1,400 check said to be one of the checks stolen in Wasilla.

The pace of events quickened at 5:08 p.m. when WPD received a report from Fred Meyer that a white man in the electronics department was attempting to buy a computer valued at $1,330 using another of the allegedly stolen checks. Two other men were reportedly with the would-be computer purchaser, one of whom fit the description provided by Wells Fargo of the man who had cashed the check at the bank only minutes before.

Wasilla officers responded to the call from Fred Meyer at 5:11 p.m. and made contact with the suspect identified by the store employees as the man who had tried to use the stolen check. Officers questioned the man and then arrested him.

Police identified the suspect as Marvin D. Donley, 41, who claimed to be homeless. The officers reportedly recovered from Donley property including credit cards and cash stolen in the Wasilla crime, as well as credit cards stolen in the Palmer incident.

Donley was taken to Mat-Su Pre-Trial Facility, where he remained in custody on Thursday, in lieu of $25,000 cash bail and a court-approved, third-party custodian.

According to Wasilla police, the investigation is ongoing.