A Utah man wearing a camouflage hoodie with a Ford logo on it, baggie jeans and a black beanie stopped outside a bank in Afton, Wyoming, at noon on a mid-September day to smoke a cigarette.
He then walked down the sidewalk and strode into the Bank of Star Valley, pulled a check from his hoodie pocket and gave it to the teller.
He also fished his wallet from his back jeans pocket and pulled out his identification card to show the teller, then re-folded the card into the wallet and put it back in his pocket, court documents relate from the bank’s surveillance video.
The teller handed him $3,418.26, and the man left the bank at 12:37 that day, Sept. 19, according to an evidentiary affidavit in the theft and forgery case later filed against the man, 34-year-old Nicholas R. Boschetti.
The affidavit says Boschetti’s next stop that day was the Thayne branch of the Bank of Star Valley, and that he walked from a grocery store parking lot into the building, this time holding the check out in his hand as he entered.
He cashed the check for $4,281.13, at about 1:14 p.m. while wearing the same casual clothes, the document alleges.
Next, he approached the Alpine branch of the same bank and removed a $5,318.42 check from his hoodie pocket.
The teller needed help with this one.
She signaled for the branch manager to help her since the bank would have to take special measures now that the account, which court documents say belonged to the Alpine Standard gas station, was being drained of more than $10,000 in a single day.
Ultimately, the teller scanned the check through the bank’s system and took a copy of Boschetti’s driver’s license, the affidavit says.
He left with $5,318.42 that day, the document continues, now having pulled a total of $13,017.81 from the account via three different banks in Lincoln County.
Gone
Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office Deputy Carson Wagstaff wouldn’t get a call from the bank until about 3:30 p.m. It takes time to confirm a check fraud, the bank manager of the Alpine branch told Wagstaff, the affidavit says.
The manager got busy gathering surveillance video and copies of the checks for the investigator.
The bank became wary when Boschetti cashed the third check and acted on its policy to document his driver’s license and contact the account owner.
When bankers contacted the owner of the gas station, she said the checks were fraudulent: she kept them locked away and never gave Boschetti, a stranger to her, permission to cash them, the affidavit says.
When the gas station owner sent Wagstaff photos of her own business checks, they were “similar, (but) different” from the ones Boschetti is accused of cashing.
By then, Wagstaff believed Boschetti was no longer in Lincoln County, and the local court authorized a warrant for his arrest.
Just My Day Job
Authorities had Boschetti in custody by Oct. 30 at least, and he appeared in court Nov. 1. His case later rose to the felony-level Lincoln County District Court, where he’s set for a March 10 trial.
And Nov. 4, Boschetti sent a handwritten letter to the judge, saying he was only a pawn in the check fraud scheme.
“This is Nicholas Boschetti writing what personally happened,” reads the note, in large letters on blue paper.
The day before the check cashings, a man in Salt Lake City approached Boschetti and offered him a job, cashing checks for accounts payable for a construction company, after its jobs had been completed, Boschetti told the court.
“He told me all I had to do was cash some checks in my name and … nothing else would come of it,” says the letter.
He claims someone drove him to each bank in a grey Hyundai with Florida license plates.
“I was told the checks were no (sic) fraudulent,” wrote Boschetti. “I did not create those checks nor do I know how to.”
So, Boschetti added, “I was used.”
Boschetti’s letter urges authorities to review surveillance video from a motel on North Temple Street in Utah, where the driver “ditched” him. Perhaps they could find the vehicle’s license plate number, make and model and confirm his account of the events, he indicated.
Boschetti also wrote down a phone number attributed to a phone which he said the deceptive employer let him use.
Cowboy State Daily called the phone number Thursday, and a robo-operator said the call could not go through due to the phone’s “restrictions.”
Boschetti also wrote the name of a man to whom he believes the number is registered.
“I hope the name comes back as familiar or possibly (as) a past employee of Alpine Standard,” wrote Boschetti. “He seemed to know what he was doing and did not want to pull up to the bank.”
If Convicted
Boschetti faces six charges, each punishable by up to 10 years in prison and $10,000 in fines. Those include three counts of felony theft and three counts of felony forgery. His case is ongoing.
Clair McFarland can be reached at clair@cowboystatedaily.com.
