Two men, both from Knoxville, were arrested Wednesday for attempting to cash checks both stolen from Country Cupboard… at different branches of First National Bank of Tennessee.

Early Wednesday afternoon, Crossville City Police were summoned to the First National Bank of Tennessee for a man attempting to pass a stolen or forged check. Bank employees detained the man in an office until police arrived.

Police learned 35-year-old Robert Randall Ward of Knoxville had attempted to cash a check for $5,730.10 from the Country Cupboard.

Marcus Otto, the owner of Country Cupboard happened to be in the bank at the same time. Otto stated he’d just filed a police report that morning on some checks that had been stolen. He confirmed the check Ward had presented was not one of those that had been stolen, but was forged with information from his business.

Ward was taken to the police station to be interviewed by investigators working the case; then he was brought to the Cumberland County Justice Center, where he was charged with violation of the bad check law and passing a forged instrument.

Later that same day, Cumberland County deputies were dispatched to the First National Bank of Tennessee in Fairfield Glade, where 44-year-old Richard Allen Breeden of Knoxville was attempting to cash a check in the amount of $5,460.88, stolen from the Country Cupboard and made payable to Breeden.

Breeden told deputies he’d gotten into a newer-model gray Chevrolet with two black men and one other white man; he said they drove to Harriman and then to Fairfield Glade, where he said the black men handed him the check and told him to go inside and cash it.

A Crossville police detective informed deputies he wanted to interview Breeden as well. Deputies took possession of the stolen check, brought Breeden to speak with the detective at the Crossville Police Department and then transported him to the Cumberland County Justice Center, where he was charged with criminal simulation and passing a forged instrument. Breeden was placed under $20,000 bond and is due in court March 11.