Man allegedly scammed woman, local businesses hundreds by using fake checks

A man allegedly scammed a woman he met online and a local businesses out of hundreds of dollars by using fake checks.

“When he first came in, he had a large personality, trying to maybe schmoose us a little bit to show, ‘hey, I’m a nice guy,'” said the owner of Lumpy’s Golf, Troy O’Donnell.

O’Donnell says he was selling $200 worth of golf gear to Michael Patsones back in April when he fell for the fake check.

“He quickly picked out a couple shirts and paid for them with a check, and he saw how easy we were to get the check through. He said, ‘hey, I want to buy a couple more shirts for my father,’ and wrote another check,” O’Donnell said.

Less than a week later, O’Donnell said the checks bounced.

“Tried calling him, and I left 5 to 6 messages,” O’Donnell said. “I said, ‘hey, let’s just handle this, you know, between us and not get anyone else involved,’ and I never heard back from him,” O’Donnell said.

According to the police report, Patsones also used fake checks at Red Wing Shoes, The Fish House and the Olga Mall.

When Patsones was allegedly making all his transactions, he always used the excuse he was on his way to church to help feed hungry kids, the police report said.

“He told me he was coming from the Grace Church, and that he was doing a project that he needed to go get food for the church,” said the owner of the Olga Mall. “But, he wasn’t doing anything for the church.”

The arrest report said he also wrote a fake check to a girl he met online in exchange for $125 in cash, telling her his car was towed and he needed money to get it back.

Now, set back a full days worth of work, the owner of the Olga Mall hopes he pays for what he did.

WINK News reached out to Grace Church, but they declined to say whether or not they knew Patsones, or if he was actually there to help out.

Patsones is facing two charges for fraud.