Part Three - The Aftermath

So after the phone calls stopped coming it became evident to Jack and Jill that the only thing they could do now was just sit back and wait for whatever came next. As it turns out, they didn't really have to wait long.

Shortly after the last text message was sent they got a phone call from Detective T. He informed them that they had looked for Jon long enough and were now bringing in the U.S. Marshalls to assist with the search. Their reasoning was that the marshall's spend all of their time tracking people and would be able to put more man hours into it and inevitably catch him sooner.

Detective T. then asked if it would be alright for the marshalls to contact Jack & Jill to gather as much information as they could. Of course Jack & Jill agreed and later that afternoon they spoke with U.S. Marshall P. and gave him all of the information that they had about Jon.

A few more days passed and then Jack and Jill were surprised to see a story on the local news.

November 1, 2006

Des Moines police, Polk County sheriff's deputies and U.S. marshals spent the early-morning hours searching for a man wanted on what they said is an outstanding warrant.

Authorities said they are searching for Jon Doe of Warren County. They would not say what the warrant is for or whether Bridges is dangerous.

Officers were searching an area around the Iowa State Fairgrounds.

While they were disappointed that no arrest had been made Jack and Jill were glad to see that progress was being made in the attempt to capture Jon. At this point Jill didn't really care whether they charged him with the theft of her checks or not.

She was more concerned with the fact that this man knew where she lived and that it was a secluded area . For the first time in the four and a half years that she had lived in their house she was afraid to be home alone after dark. She would rush home from work and lock the doors, concerned that he would try to come back and use their house as a hideout. As far as she was concerned she just wanted to see him put behind bars so she could stop looking over her shoulder.

The next day she received a phone call from U.S. Marshall S. He informed her that he had found her two books of checks. They had been searching a house looking for Jon when they came upon them. He said he had looked under the bed and seen them rubberbanded together. Unfortunately they did not search the rest of the house for the passport & birthcertificates as all they were really looking for was Jon, it was just a fluke that they found the checks.

Still she felt glad to have them out of circulation just the same. The U.S. Marshall told her he couldn't tell if any of the checks had been used and Jill could not remember the exact numbers that had been stolen. Either way, at least Jill knew that from this point forward they could not write any more checks. As it was she had yet to be notified by anyone that any of the checks had been used so she was hopeful that maybe they realized the accounts were closed and never used the checks.

HaHa!! Isn't Jill so funny??

Her first brush with the bad check recovery system began just two days later. On November 4th she received a call from M*astercheck. When she called them back she was informed that they were calling in regards to a bounced check. Since this was her first theft of checks and actually the first check that had EVER bounced with her name on it Jill was a little green in this area. The people on the phone were very nice and told her that she needed to fax them a copy of the police report along with a notice from the bank showing when she closed the account.

They also agreed to fax her a copy of the check so she could give it to the police detective. However, later that day Jill opened up her mailbox and found a letter from M*stercheck. Attached to the letter was a picture of a canceled check written on her big bank checking account. Check number 1130 had been written to Hobby Lobby for $135.61.

While this made her perfect little maybe I got off easy scenario not work so well, what most bothered Jill was the fact that the check had been written on 10/19/06. See as you may remember from earlier in our story (I know it's been a LONG ass story and you may not remember that far back!!) big bank will not call when a check hits the bank. They will only send it back lost/stolen and then you have to wait to be contacted.

This means that unfortunately any surveillance video that they may have had of Jane writing the checks is probably long gone. Making it almost impossible to actually prosecute her for this crime. Great customer service huh?

The next day Jill again opened her mailbox to another surprise. (Yes I'm aware it was a Sunday, the mailman/woman is new and still adjusting to the route so the mail didn't get there until 6:00 Saturday night and it was cold and Jill didn't want to traipse outside and get it.) Inside the mailbox was the letter from M*stercheck (apparently they had called when they put the notice in the mail) and a notice from C*pital Recovery. Check number 1134 had been written to Pizza Hut for 42.38.

So just as before Jill called the company and explained to them what was going on. They told her the same information she had already heard. They would need a copy of the police report and a letter stating when the account had been closed before they could turn the incident over to their fraud department.

On Monday morning Jill opened up the paper and was somewhat disappointed to see the following:

November 6, 2006

Alleged abductor eludes authorities

Jon Doe, the target of a Des Moines manhunt, is also accused of assault. U.S. marshals consider him armed and dangerous.

U.S. marshals conducted a manhunt through Des Moines Saturday night for an accused kidnapper, failing to locate a man on the run who should be considered armed and dangerous, authorities said.

Jon Doe, 30, is wanted in Jasper County on charges of second-degree kidnapping. Bridges is accused of kidnapping and assaulting two adults in rural Jasper County in September, a spokesman said. A warrant for his arrest was issued Sept. 25.

The U.S. Marshals Service joined the investigation about two weeks ago, spokesman Mike Powell said. Sources tipped off deputy marshals to the vehicle Jon was driving and his general location Saturday.

Deputies saw Bridges driving at Southwest Eighth Street and Davis Avenue about 8 p.m., Powell said. Jon fled in his vehicle, sparking a chase through the south side of Des Moines.

"Early in the pursuit, it was questionable whether or not we should even continue ... fearing that it might be too dangerous given that area," Powell said, citing narrow streets and a populated neighborhood.

Police backed off several blocks and eventually found Jons' abandoned car around Southwest Fourth Street and Thornwood Road. Jon had jumped out and had run on foot, Powell said.

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; the Des Moines Police Department; and a canine unit joined the search. Officers followed several leads, Powell said, including stops at several locations mentioned by sources during interviews. The search was called off about 11 p.m.

Jon is described as 5 feet 9 inches tall and about 150 pounds. He has brown hair and brown eyes.

"He should be considered armed and dangerous in more ways than one," Powell said, noting an investigation into a firearms violation and Jons' propensity to flee.

The U.S. Marshals Service is investigating possible drug and firearm charges, Powell said. It will not charge Jin for eluding police or violating traffic laws stemming from the chase.

While she was glad that they were still hunting for him she would have been much happier if they had been able to actually CATCH him. The next morning Jill received a phone call from one of the U.S. Marshalls. They had found Jack's birthcertificate in the car that Jon had ditched on Saturday. Further proving that Jon and Jane were the people who had broken into their safe.

Later that morning Jill made copies of the notices she had received and also wrote up and explanation of what she knew so far. It appeared as if Jane had been using a fake ID as there was an ID number on the checks that was not Jill's old or new ID number. It also appeared as if she had gotten in the phone book and looked up someone will Jill's last name and just the first initial because that was the phone number that was on the checks. (Can you tell she must have done this before?)

Jill then took a two hour lunch and dropped the copies off at the Sheriff's office. The detective was out until Monday but since the checks had been written three weeks prior Jill was fairly certain one more week was not going to hurt anything. She also got a copy of the police report while she was at the sheriff's office. Once she got back to her office she proceeded to fax letters and copies of the police report to both of the check collection agencies.

By that weekend she had received no more notices and was hoping that maybe all they had written were the two checks. (You know where this is going don't you?) Monday morning (we've made it to 11/13 now) Detective D. called her to let her know that he had received the papers that she had left the previous week.

He mentioned to her at that time that since the checks were written in the city he may have to turn the case over to a city detective. However, he said if he did so the chances of anything getting done about it would be pretty slim because they have SOO many cases. So, he was going to speak with his boss and see if he couldn't keep it in the county office.

The next day Jill returned home from work to find a notice from Big Bank stating that her account was overdrawn because they had paid a $30 fee to M*sterchek. At this point Jill became angry. How could they have paid a fee to this company out of her new checking account when the only information this company had was her old account?

Jill immediately called Big Bank and was informed that when they close an account because of lost or stolen checks they do a lost/stolen transfer. So, any checks are returned but any electronic withdrawals are rolled from one account to the other. WTF? So, Jill had to explain to this person at big bank that this was an error because the fee was for a check which she didn't write. The person on the phone processed a fraud report and told Jill that she would take care of it. At that time Jill also asked her about the two other companies that had contacted her and whether she could make sure they could not do the same thing. The person on the phone assured her that would not happen. She lies...

The next night Jill answered the phone and was confronted with a woman from Gl*bal Payments who wanted to talk to her about a check she had written to NAPA for $79.40. Jill politely informed her that she could talk all she wanted but she didn't write a check to NAPA (by this point she was becoming a little cynical). She then explained the rest of the situation and got a fax number to fax the police report to.

On the 16th Jill just had a bang up day. First she received a call from big bank stating that her account was REALLY overdrawn. At first she was caught off guard until she realized that in all the commotion she had forgotten to deposit the money for her home equity loan. So they had withdrawn it from funds that weren't there. She told the woman on the phone that she would go right then and make the deposit and questioned as to whether this would make everything alright. She was assured that if she went and made the deposit that day the account should be fine. She lies... (are you seeing a pattern here?)

When Jill returned home that evening she was faced with two more notices in her mailbox. There was a second notice from M*astercheck about a second check to Hobby Lobby, this one for $156.67. There was also the notice from Gl*bal Payments regarding the NAPA check. She called M*stercheck to confirm that she didn't need to refax the police report and then made a note to make sure she faxed Gl*bal Payments the next day.

By the morning of the 17th Jill was pretty fed up with all of this bad check crap. She faxed Gl*bal payments their information and then faxed Detective D. the newest statements. Finally she decided just for fun she would jump on the Big Bank website to make sure that things had been taken care of. That is when all the real fun started.

At this point she noticed that there was more money in the account than there should have been. After looking into the detail she was horrified to discover that the M"astercheck charge had not been reversed, they had paid another charge to a company called Ch*ck Recovery, and they had bounced her home equity payment.

She immediately picked up the phone to call them and then re-considered. She knew that she was not going to get ANYTHING accomplished on the phone. So... off to the bank she went. It took two hours to get everything straightened out. Since Big Bank is a national chain there is nothing that can be handled within the branch. The banker has to call the corporate number and then they walk them through filling out forms on-line.

The man who was helping Jill had to call three different phone numbers and explain the situation to three different people. Not to mention she had to first get him to understand that while these companies may have legitimate charges they are charges for forged checks and so no, she was NOT going to pay two $30 charges plus two $33 dollar overdraft charges simply because they linked two accounts that they shouldn't have.

Finally when it was all over they had to close the account completely and open another one that was in no way linked to the first. So Jill is now the proud owner of her THIRD big bank checking account in a month. The only really helpful thing that came of her two hours at the bank was she was able to get copies of all of the checks that had tried to clear her old account. In total there were 9.

The perpetrators had gotten away with approximately $731 and it didn't appear that there was anything Jill could do about it. Just the same Jill faxed the copies of the checks to Detective D. for good measure. She also noticed that one of the checks had her SSN on it. This disturbed her greatly. Jon & Jane had not taken her Social Security card but apparently had written down the number from it.

On Saturday she got another notice from Gl*bal Payments regarding a second NAPA Check for $147.90 and by Monday the social security number incident was really starting to eat at her. When she got to work she got on-line and pulled all three of her credit reports. Luckily there was no activity on any of them.

On the 24th she received notice from S*curity Check, LLC about a $28.09 Kum & Go check and then on the 25th she received two notices from Big Bank. One said they had accepted her dispute of one of the $30 charges. The other one said they were denying the dispute of the other $30. Now please explain to me how they can treat two charges for the same thing in two different manners? After a month of dealing with this shit Jill's blood was just boiling.

On Monday the 27th Jill had to go out of town for training so she was not able to fax anyone regarding the notices she had received the previous week. When she returned home she got on-line and checked out the current inmate listing at the county jail. Imagine her surprise when she saw Jane's name on that listing. It said she was charged with two counts of forgery.

Jill looked for Jon's name but could not find it so she assumed Jane must not have known anyone was looking for her and was out and about going about her business. The one thing Jack and Jill were surprised about was that Jane was only 19. Apparenly heavy drug use must take a tole on your looks because she looked at least Jill's age or older. So, while it wasn't Jon behind bars Jill was certainly happy to see Jane there just the same.

unfortunately by the next morning someone had paid $1,300 to a bail bondsman and she was let free. Many people questioned why they would let her bond out of jail. Jill had only two answers for them. Number one, she's not a flight risk. She's never run from the law before so they can't hold her as one until she does. Number two, they may be hoping she leads them to Jon. As a 19 year old kid it may have been possible that she wouldn't be smart enough to lay low and stay away from Jon for awhile. Since he was who they really wanted they may have been trying to set her up.

Once at work Jill sent three more faxes, an appeal to Big Bank, the police report to S*curity Check, & the remaining notices to Detective D. then she waited. She must have checked the jail listings 20 times that day. Each time was the same. Jane was still out and Jon was not yet in.

It took three more days for the law to catch up with Jon & Jane. They were caught together proving Jane's theory that Jane had probably lead them straight to Jon.

December 1, 2006

A man wanted who was involved in two high-speed chases with police and wanted on kidnapping charges is now back in jail.

Members of the US Marshals and Polk County Sheriff's Violent Fugitive Task Force arrested Jon Doe Friday night at a home in West Des Moines. Does' wife, Jane was also arrested. Investigators say she was an accessory and helped hide Jon from the authorities.

Jon was wanted in Jasper County on second-degree kidnapping charges. He is now in the Polk county jail. Investigators say they aren't ruling out more charges against other people they believe helped Bridges avoid arrest.

Unfortunately drug money runs deep with these two. By Monday someone had paid an additional $650 to another bail bondsman to get Jane out of jail. Jon, however is another story. He is now being held without bond where Jack and Jill hope he stays for a long, long time.