Lombard cops: Man bought car with fake check

An arrest warrant has been issued for a Chicago man accused of forging a $36,500 check to buy a luxury car in Lombard, police said Wednesday.

Johnny McCaskill, 28, of the 1200 block of West 73rd Place, is being sought on felony charges of forgery and theft.

Police said McCaskill forged a phony cashier’s check to pay for a 2009 Jaguar XF in Lombard on March 29. The transaction happened after he contacted an independent seller through an advertisement at cars.com, Lombard Police Detective Dave Thiede said.

Thiede said the seller learned the check was bad on April 8. That same day, he found the same car listed for sale again online, and police recovered it a short time later from an Indiana auction site.

DuPage County court records show McCaskill has a similar case pending out of Bloomingdale, where he was accused of forging a check in April to buy a 1970 Dodge Challenger worth more than $10,000. Police said authorities in Will County and Palatine also were seeking McCaskill at one time.

In the Lombard case, Thiede said, the seller called the bank named on the phony cashier’s check and was told the document was legitimate. He said it wasn’t until the bank received the physical check that it was determined to be bogus.

“By the time he found out the check was forged, the car had already been purchased” by another buyer, Thiede said. “So it was that quick.”

Thiede said sellers can help protect themselves by requesting identification and supporting documents when accepting large checks, though fake IDs can be difficult to spot.

“If you’re selling your car and somebody shows up and they’re not giving you a legit ID or are refusing to give other information people might normally give,” he said, “it’s usually a clue you need to look into this further or don’t go through with the sale.”

McCaskill is due to appear in court Monday, July 11.