Issaquah businesswoman recovers $40,000 check from ID thief bust

Police say an Orting woman’s crime spree last month involving stolen identities and property nearly cost an Issaquah woman about $41,000.

King County prosecutors charged Crystal Casano, 27, with 12 counts of identity theft at her March 31 arraignment, using personal information taken from more than a dozen victims across King County. But the prosecutor hasn’t yet brought charges for stolen property located among her belongings when she was arrested March 17 at the Renton Quality Inn on Maple Valley Highway.

According to a Renton Police investigation, Casano allegedly broke into several mailboxes around March 1 along the 20000 block of Renton-Issaquah Road Southeast near an enclave of several large homes, including a mailbox belonging to local business owner Li Ping Sun. One of the items stolen was a business check worth $40,469.96 from Bakersfield Pipe and Supply of Bakersfield, California. Police discovered the check after searching through an accordion folder belonging to Bakersfield Pipe and notified the parties of their discovery. Neither party recognized the alleged thief.

Sun, who owns an import-export business delivering Chinese steel piping and tubing, said the California vendor had already cut her another check. Casano pleaded not guilty to all charges.

Bond was set at $50,000, and she is scheduled to return to court on April 28.