3 Arrested in Watonga Suspected of Forgery Operation

WATONGA — A chance early-morning traffic stop resulted in three arrests last week in what the sheriff’s office believes is a sophisticated counterfeiting operation.

Emily Hayward of Sayre and Kody Finnell of Canute were booked into the Blaine County Jail on suspicion of conspiracy, identity theft, possession of counterfeit checks and possession of drug paraphernalia. Robert Keefe, whose hometown was not listed, was also booked on suspicion of meth possession and destruction of evidence.

The traffic stop occurred early on Tuesday, June 29, according to Blaine County Sheriff Travis Daugherty. He said the three were pulled over in Watonga.

“They were in possession of what we believe to be methamphetamine, as well as several checks and IDs, and the equipment to make IDs,” Daugherty said. “It appears to be very organized, and we have turned it over to the White-Collar Crimes division of the OSBI.”

Daugherty said the operation may be gang-related. He said deputies found forged stimulus checks and checks that appeared to come from a major oil and gas company. “They would make the check to this fraudulent name,” Daugherty said, “and then they would take the driver’s license and they would put the picture of them with the fake name, so they could cash the check. It was hard to distinguish whether it was a real ID or a fake ID. They’ve come so far with printers these days.”

He encouraged Blaine County residents to be vigilant about protecting their personal information. “We would like to tell the citizens that, if they have any loose checkbooks laying around with routing numbers – that’s all they need to get, is your routing number, to make you become a victim of this. So if you have any checkbooks, don’t leave them around. Don’t leave them in your car. If you leave your car unlocked somewhere, that’s all they need to do is get a hold of that routing number.”