New Canaan Police used a distinctive tattoo and car rental information to identify a 31-year-old Connecticut man who altered a local man’s checks—including a donation to the New Canaan Fire Department—as part of a fraud scheme.
Local detectives began investigating the matter last June, when they received a report of fraud from a Marvin Ridge Road man who had mailed a $100 donation to NCFD as well as a graduation card with a $100 check to a relative in California. Two days after mailing those checks out, Bank of America contacted him regarding “possible fraudulent activities,” according to an arrest warrant application obtained by NewCanaanite.com.
The check for NCFD had been altered to $1,100 to ‘Bridgeport Finest Inc,’ and the graduation check had been altered to pay $2,000 to a ‘DeLano Freeman Martin,’ according to the affidavit that forms the bulk of the application, written by Sgt. Rex Sprosta and signed Dec. 20 by a state Superior Court judge.
The first altered check was deposited into a Chase ATM in Bridgeport, and the second check was deposited via mobile into a Bank of America account, according to the affidavit. Detectives discovered that the business called ‘Bridgeport Finest Inc’—which ultimately turned out to be an illegitimate business that’s not registered with the Connecticut Department of Consumer Protection—was associated by a person supposedly named “Devon T. Brown.” On June 7, a deposit was made into the ‘Bridgeport Finest Inc’ account in the amount of $4,919.37, including the altered $1,100 check from the New Canaan man.
“The deposit was made at the drive-up ATM by a black male wearing a black mask covering most of his face, sunglasses and wearing a white T-shirt,” Sprosta wrote in the affidavit. “The suspect was driving a white Nissan bearing Florida registration … All of the checks deposited on June 7th (four) appeared to be altered and were from three different victims within Connecticut and from New York.”
While depositing the checks, the affidavit said, a “distinct tattoo” could be seen on the suspect’s left forearm.
Ultimately the arrested man “was identified by the distinctive tattoo on his left forearm with the inscription ‘Mac Maine’ which is visible in the video as he is depositing the forged checks into the ATM,” Sprosta said in the arreste warrant application. “The tattoo is in memory of his deceased brother Quayman Terrell ‘Mac-Maine’ Crosby, who passed away on September 1st, 2011.”
Findagrave.com lists the suspect as one of the surviving relatives.
The suspect also was identifed by the Florida license plate on the Nissan Sentra he had rented under his real name, from May 31 to June 27, 2024, from Enterprise Rent-a-Car, Sprosta said in the affidavit.
Plainville Detective Jamie Fenn, who was investigating a similar case in East Hartford, assisted New Canaan Police by sharing surveillance footage that showed the suspect driving up to an ATM with the tattoo clearly visible and “he is not wearing a mask or anything to conceal his identity,” Sprosta said.
According to the application, all funds deposited into the “Bridgeport’s Finest” account in June 2024 “appear to come from washed and altered checks that never made it to the recipients that they were originally intended.”
Connecticut State Police troopers, after stopping the suspect at a Merritt Parkway rest stop, discovered the outstanding warrant and notified New Canaan Police at 4:10 a.m. on Feb. 5 that they had him in custody. Police took him to headquarters for processing on charges of first-degree forgery and fourth-degree larceny.
Sprosta also noted that the suspect “has an extensive criminal history.”
According to Connecticut Judicial Branch records, the man in 2024 pleaded guilty to a first-degree sexual assault charge stemming from 2010. He also has been arrested by police in Bridgeport, Derby and Plainville on charges such as second-degree threatening, risk of injury to a minor, violation of a protective order, second-degree harassment, second-degree unlawful restraint, second-degree reckless endangerment, third-degree assault and strangulation.
In the New Canaan Police case, the man is being held on $150,000 bond and is scheduled for arraignment April 11, court records show. He’s represented by the public defender.