Thomasville woman charged with fraud in Iowa

Paul B. Johnson, The High Point Enterprise, N.C.
·2 min read

Mar. 7—THOMASVILLE — A 49-year-old Thomasville woman who has been arrested and charged with multiple counts of fraud in Iowa may be part of a nationwide gang that commits financial crimes, police said.

Gloria Jean Pantelis was arrested last week by the Waverly, Iowa, Police Department and the Bremer County, Iowa, Sheriff's Office. She is accused of using fraudulent identification to commit thefts from local banks.

Pantelis is being held in the Bremer County Jail on multiple felony charges of theft, identity theft and forgery. Bond is set at $40,000 secured, Waverly Police Department Capt. Jason Leonard told The High Point Enterprise on Monday.

"The investigation is revealing strong similarities to Felony Lane Gang occurrences throughout the country," Leonard said.

Members of the Felony Lane Gang specialize in "smash-and-grab" vehicle robberies seeking valuables and personal information, especially identification documents and checkbooks, Leonard said.

"They will use your checkbook to write checks to cash at banks," Leonard said. "With the stolen information, they are purporting to be the person with the account."

The Felony Lane Gang members are more sophisticated than run-of-the-mill robbers, Leonard said. For example, at banks they will use the last customer drive-thru lane serviced by tellers through vacuum tubes to make it harder for the teller to see who's in the vehicle.

Also, after cashing checks at bank branches, they will change the license plate on their vehicle to a stolen plate to make it harder to track them, the captain said.

"We believe that Ms. Pantelis is a pawn in this deal," Leonard said.

Leonard said Pantelis indicated that she had been as far west as Nevada and was heading back to the East Coast with a group of people.

Pantelis was arrested after reports from bank branches in Waverly, Plainfield and Cedar Falls on Feb. 27 of a woman using a Social Security card and driver's license information to cash checks. The identification had been stolen from a vehicle parked in George Wyth State Park in Waterloo, Iowa, in October 2022.

On Feb. 28, Pantelis was apprehended in a vehicle she was driving after trying to use stolen documents at a bank branch in Plainfield, police said.

The investigation is ongoing and includes several agencies.

Additional charges are pending against Pantelis, according to a statement from the Waverly Police Department.

pjohnson@hpenews.com — 336-888-3528 — @HPEpaul