Franklin Woman Accused of Attempting to Steal Thousands of Dollars from Local Business Back in Court Wednesday

| December 3, 2019

FRANKLIN, Pa. (EYT) – A Franklin woman is a facing a hearing on Wednesday on multiple felony charges in relation to a scheme to steal thousands of dollars from a local business.

Court documents indicate 19-year-old McKenzie Renee Shook, of Franklin, is scheduled to stand for a preliminary hearing in front of Magisterial District Judge Matthew T. Kirtland at 1:30 p.m. on Wednesday, December 4.

The hearing has been continued twice.

Shook faces the following charges:

– Forgery – Unauthorized Act In Writing, Felony 2 (eight counts)
– Receiving Stolen Property, Felony 2
– Access Device Is Counterfeit, Altered, Incomplete, Felony 3 (five counts)
– Theft By Unlawful Taking-Movable Property, Felony 3
– Criminal Use Of Communication Facility, Felony 3
– Access Device Used To Obtain Or Attempt to Obtain Property/Service, Misdemeanor 1 (three counts)
– Theft By Deception-False Impression, Misdemeanor 1 (eight counts)

She is currently free on $20,000.00 unsecured bail.

The charges stem from an investigation into a report of theft from an area business.

Details of the case:

According to a criminal complaint, on May 16, Detective Saragian, of the Franklin Police Department, received a report of multiple fake checks allegedly written using the bank account information from a Franklin brewery.

According to the complaint, from March to May, a total of eight false checks totaling $4,137.00 were deposited into a bank account belonging to McKenzie Renee Shook.

Detective Saragian spoke to a bank employee who stated that it “might have been possible that the monies that had been mobile deposited from the fraudulent checks might have been deposited into McKenzie Shook’s (bank account), and then transferred to a mobile online money transfer app, Venmo.”

The complaint notes Shook was an employee of the Franklin brewery who received paychecks which include the checking account number and routing number of the bank account.

Detective Saragian investigated further and found that Shook appeared to have an active Venmo account and that she had been active in transferring funds in May 2019.

Shook was then interviewed at the Franklin Police Department.

According to the complaint, Shook reported that she had been in contact, via SnapChat, with an individual calling herself “Alexia Quinn” who asked for her personal bank account information and a photo of her paycheck, and someone had then mobile deposited the fraudulent checks into her account, and she had been instructed to transfer it to another account on an online money transfer app. She related that in exchange for the transactions, she was promised half of the stolen funds.

The complaint notes that Detective Saragian was able to located a Facebook account for “Alexia Quinn” associated with the SnapChat account Shook had been communicating with, but does not include any further information on any associated individual’s real identity.

Shook was arraigned in front of Magisterial District Judge Matthew T. Kirtland at 11:11 a.m. on Tuesday, October 29.


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