Oakdale Man Charged with Check Forgery

An Oakdale man has been charged with offering a forged check in Dakota County after authorities say he stole a pickup, then the owner’s checkbook, and used it to write checks in West St. Paul last year.

Joseph Thomas Beran, 28, faces one felony count in the case, which carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison and $10,000 in fines.

According to the complaint against Beran, filed in Dakota County District Court, Beran was arrested in April of 2010, charged with stealing a pickup in Hudson, WI, and was being held in the St. Croix County Jail.

The pickup’s owner told police that his checkbook had been inside the truck when it was stolen, the complaint says. On the same day he reported the theft, two checks— one for $142 and one for $198—were written at a store in West St. Paul, the complaint says.

When authorities searched Beran, who was found sleeping in the stolen pickup, they also recovered the victim’s checkbook, according to the complaint.

Investigators subsequently viewed surveillance video from the West St. Paul store and identified the person passing the checks as Beran, according to the complaint. Hudson police turned over the clothes that Beran was wearing when he was arrested, and they matched those worn by the suspect in the video, the complaint says.

Beran’s criminal record shows convictions for theft in 2009 in Pierce County, WI; in 2008 and 2010 in Washington County; in 2009 in Olmsted County; and in 2010 in Dakota County. He was also convicted of receiving stolen property in 2009 and check forgery in 2009, both in Washington County.