Police: Wig-wearing thief strikes again

Police say a wig-wearing woman is allegedly attempting to cash stolen checks at various Jersey Shore bank branches.

“Wig-wearing criminal is still at it,” Toms River Police Department spokesman Ralph Stocco said in a news release.

The public first got word that police were seeking the unidentified woman when the Toms River Police Department released a bank drive-through surveillance photo of the woman, apparently wearing a brown wig, on Tuesday.

According to police, she allegedly utilized the checks, stolen from several vehicles in Toms River’s Riverwood Park on Jan. 7 at Ocean First Bank branches in Hammonton, Little Egg, and Mays Landing.

Authorities say that after Toms River police released the images, officials at the Manasquan Bank in Howell advised the department that the woman attempted to cash stolen checks at some of its branches.

“She was blonde in these instances and using a different vehicle. We also have information that she recently committed the same crimes at banks in Wall Township,” Stocco said.

The spokesman says authorities believe the woman is an accomplice of a well-organized group that travels the state committing crimes.

“A mainstay of their criminal enterprise is breaking into vehicles in public parking lots to remove purses that are readily visible. They then use accomplices to make purchases with stolen credit cards as well as to commit bank fraud,” he said.