LAKE COUNTY — The best thing residents can do to fight crime is prevent themselves from being victimized, according to area law enforcement officials.

Though it’s not always possible to stop a crime, it is possible to make crimes harder to commit.

Investigators from Lake County, City of Polson, the Confederate Salish Kootenai Tribes, Montana Highway Patrol, the United States Postal Inspector’s office and the Lake County Prosecuting Attorney’s office are working together to catch criminals.

“There has been a spike in forged and alter(ed) check activities throughout Late County,” said Polson Police Detective Michelle Scott.

“It has affected not only the lives of victim account holders but local commerce. And several thousands of dollars in stolen and altered checks (are) being investigated.”

Scott said participating agencies hold regular roundtables to discuss recent activity and decide how to handle particular situations.

“Stolen checks have been obtained from secured and unsecured vehicles and (cars in) which loose change, cash, wallets and purses have been left in plain view,” Scott said. “Some have occurred from burglaries and mail theft. We are also investigating cases where the checks have been stolen from family members by a relative, or the relatives visiting friends.”

Area businesses buy into thieves’ efforts as well.

“Stolen checks have been cashed by bank walk ins, drive-thrus as well as businesses in which the suspect has even use the victim’s photo ID or has memorized the victim’s drivers license number,” Scott said. “We continue to have cases where the business or the bank did not request a photo ID of the person cashing the check or did not view the photo ID thoroughly.”

Lake County Sheriff’s Department Detective Kim Leibenguth said thieves also take advantage of the elderly.

Criminals know that older folks often pay bills by check and that they drop those checks into their street-side mail box and raise the red flag, Leibenguth said.

That red flag sometimes calls criminals straight to the victim. Thieves take those checks and alter them so they can cash them.  But business owners and citizens should not become afraid to write checks, Scott said.

“Fortunately, it’s a small community,” Scott said. “ A lot of folks know each other or recognize one another in some manner. Almost every business has a camera system that syncs and matches up directly with the time when the stolen checks were cashed.”

Police investigators are confident they will catch the criminals.

“Investigations like this just take time to resolve so effective arrests can be made,” Scott said. “It requires a lot of time and effort from law-enforcement and the businesses to obtain the required paperwork documentation and video from these crimes. We’ve been extremely lucky that banks and businesses and the victims have been patient with these types of investigations.”