Crime & Safety

Check Scandal Lands Gilroy Woman in Jail

Rachel Ortiz was arrested after trying to withdraw money that had been fraudulently deposited.

A funny money case took up some of the Gilroy Police Department's time on Tuesday.

At 5:44 p.m., Rachel Estella Duenas Ortiz attempted to withdraw $1,800 from her account at Wells Fargo inside Nob Hill Foods on First Street in Gilroy. When she tried the transaction, she was told her account had been frozen because the money had been stolen. 

Four days earlier, an $1,800 check stolen from Morgan Hill was deposited into Ortiz's account at an ATM machine. According to Gilroy Police Sgt. Pedro Espinoza, Ortiz, 28, claims that "a friend of a friend used her ATM card to deposit it into her account."

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Ortiz claimed that she didn't know the check was stolen, Espinoza said. 

When police arrived at Nob Hill, Ortiz told them that two other people who she referred to only as "Eric and Janelle" were the ones that asked her to withdraw the $1,800 that day. 

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She was arrested and booked on charges of conspiracy and insufficient funds. 


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